Report warns of drink and drug problems at festivals

TOP festivals in Kerry have been urged to ensure their events are “not lost in a fog of drunkenness and aggression”.

A new report is pleading with organisers of the Rose of Tralee Festival, Puck Fair and Killarney Summerfest to try to reduce excessive drinking at the festivals.

The North Kerry Substance Use and Misuse Report reveals disturbing levels of binge drinking and unprotected sex among young people in Kerry.

However, senior gardaí are reporting that the number of public order offences in Tralee has dropped significantly since late night opening in pubs and clubs had been reduced by just a half hour.

However, assaults causing harm are continuing in the town, with some incidents being deliberately disguised by the proprietors, Superintendent Pat Sullivan of Tralee, told a meeting of the Tralee Joint Policing Committee.

He said injured people were being taken to hospital by the owners and gardaí were not being informed.

Last October, Kerry-based Judge James O’Connor granted a garda request to limit opening hours of late night pubs and nightclubs to 2am, in the hope of curbing disorder, including assaults on gardaí, on the streets.

Meanwhile, the separate North Kerry Substance Use and Misuse Report says binge drinking and drug abuse are leading to a culture of violence which is creating fear on the streets of Tralee and Listowel.

Most young people have easy access to drugs in every town and village and even in some schoolyards in the area, concludes the report, published by North Kerry Together Partnership and Partnership Tralee.

Peader King, who compiled the report, said drug taking and drinking had become part of normal practice among young people across north Kerry, with some as young as 14 experimenting with drugs.

“Time and again, young people said they felt unsafe walking around Tralee and Listowel, particularly at night-time,” he said.

“The safety issue is seen as (being) directly linked with the consumption of alcohol and drugs.’’

In a separate development, statistics are showing a reduction of one-third in the number of public order offences on the streets of Tralee since the half-hour cut back on late night opening in pubs and clubs.

Publicans, however, told the Joint Policing Committee that there were ongoing difficulties with ID systems as young people produced passports, driving licences and IDs that had been tampered with.

Kerry Licensed Vintners’ chairman John O’Sullivan, a Tralee publican, said below-cost selling of alcohol by supermarkets and off-licences had led to uncontrolled binge drinking.