Pubs not to blame for weekend street drinking, say Vintners

Revellers on South William Street, Dublin, over the weekend. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

The majority of alcohol consumed on the streets over the weekend came from off-licences and not pubs, the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) has said, adding that publicans are concerned over the lack of public conveniences as they prepare to reopen for outdoor trade next week.

VFI chief executive Padraig Cribben said the scenes of large crowds of people drinking on the streets over the weekend did not come as a surprise: “We don’t condone what happened but it was very predictable. People have been cooped up and some people don’t have front or back gardens so where do they go?”

Mr Cribben, however, estimated the between 90%-95% of alcohol consumed on the streets came from off-licences rather than from pubs.

Around one-sixth of more than 7,000 pubs across the country, he said, were currently offering a takeaway service.

“Around 90%, if not 95%, of the product that was consumed on the streets over the weekend was bought in off-licences,” Mr Cribben told the Irish Examiner.

Pubs were not to blame, he added: “The solution to the problem is to have pubs open because then you take people off the streets and you have toilets available.”

Publicans, he said, were “primed and prepared” to reopen next week although only around half of pubs are likely to open for outdoor-only trade from June 7.

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While many publicans have invested in outdoor areas and seating in response to the pandemic, they will be “severely restricted” in the volumes of people that can be accommodated, with capacity as low as 20% in many.

The lack of public toilets as observed over the weekend is also a concern for publicans, who will be restricting toilets for customer use and carefully managing the number of patrons on-site, he said.

“Where previously people nipped in off the street to use the toilet in a pub because there weren’t public conveniences available, that’s not something that can happen next week. The guidelines don’t allow for that,” Mr Cribben said, adding that local authorities had a responsibility to provide public amenities.

Meanwhile, figures furnished in the Dáil last week show a fall in the number of liquor licences granted to hotels, pubs and restaurants last year, down by 300 on 2019 figures, while the number of liquor licences granted for off-licence sales increased by 230 last year.

Mr Cribben said there were 247 fewer seven-day pub licences at the end of 2020, which may reflect other challenges stemming from the pandemic, such as resolving Revenue and tax clearance issues, rather than pub closures.

Evelyn Jones, Government Affairs Director of the National Off-Licence Association (NOffLA) said: “As independent, specialist off-licences NOffLA strongly promotes the responsible retailing of alcohol. 

"NOffLA supported the Public Health (Alcohol) Act whole-heartedly and in full, including Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) since the enactment of the legislation in 2018, as a targeted alcohol pricing policy to control the retail of ultra-cheap alcohol products.”