Urgent need to reform drink laws

THE compelling reasoning behind the report of the Liquor Licensing Commission shows beyond doubt that Ireland’s outdated drink laws are in need of radical reform.

To say the country is in the grip of a drink crisis would be an understatement. More than any other single factor, excessive drinking is to blame for an explosion of crime, casual violence and rape plaguing society.

Every weekend, accident and emergency wards resemble war zones, with nurses and doctors regularly assaulted by drunken people.

They have to treat battered young men, more often than not the innocent victims of gratuitous violence and comfort young women so drunk they are sometimes incapable of remembering if they had consensual sex or if they were raped.

There is an urgent need for far-reaching reform of drink legislation manifestly out of touch with the realities of Irish society today.

The scatter-gun effect of ministerial portfolios underlines the urgency of achieving a national alcohol strategy. This will mean overhauling the present system and introducing what Justice Minister Michael McDowell succinctly describes as a “joined-up Government single hymn sheet from which we are all singing”.

It no longer makes sense for separate ministers to hold responsibility for different aspects of the alcohol issue. Clearly, if a number of ministers end up pursuing conflicting priorities, then the thrust of Government effort is bound to lack focus.

The nub of the issue, in Mr McDowell’s opinion, is that Ireland requires an overall umbrella act that would encapsulate all the law relating to liquor licensing. In the shorter term, he is determined to tackle the breakdown of law and order associated with booze.

For a start, the crisis of underage-drinking must be addressed as a key priority. As the law stands, for instance, no offence is committed if 15-year-olds hang out in a pub as long as they don’t drink alcohol.

As Mr McDowell said, that is not a reasonable way to run a licensing system. It has to be made easier to achieve prosecutions for under-age drinking.

Clearly, the present approach, based on the voluntary use of age cards, is not working. Arguably, a mandatory scheme, obliging young people to produce evidence of their age, would help clarify much of the uncertainty.

This approach would be assured of a broad measure of support from parents, gardaí, publicans, schools, youth clubs and young people themselves.

The public will applaud Mr McDowell’s commitment to tackling binge drinking at weekends, a trend bedeviling communities across the country.

Overall, the commission makes more than 130 recommendations for changes to the way alcohol is sold in Ireland. In particular, it emphasises that publicans should have the right to exclude 15, 16 and 17-year-olds from their premises.

Another eminently sensible proposal would see so-called superpubs replaced by smaller, owner-run premises styled on continental cafés.

That would go some way towards curbing the explosion of public order offences associated with late night drinking. Most people would also support the proposal that pubs go back to closing at 11.30pm on Thursdays.

This is an excellent report which goes beyond the sale of alcohol and examines in depth the severe problems arising from its abuse.

As such, it warrants the full support of Government and of the public.