Irish Examiner view: Another blow for rural Ireland

The report on the liberalisation of licensing laws contained a striking contradiction

The Sale of Alcohol Bill would provide for many more licensed premises in the country.

Tuesday’s report on the liberalisation of licensing laws contained a striking contradiction, which should be examined in more detail.

The liberalisation arises from the Sale of Alcohol Bill, which seeks to modernise the country’s legislation governing alcohol sales, and provides for alcohol licences becoming available for venues such as museums and galleries, as well as longer opening hours.

On the face of it, this is a welcome step, and should iron out legislative anomalies and loopholes which have survived from centuries past. However, it’s clear the legislation as envisaged would provide for many more licensed premises in the country, which brings us back to that contradiction.

One in five pubs has closed in Ireland over the last 17 years, a clear indication of a shrinking market. 

If 20% of outlets serving a sector have shut down, where is the logic in allowing many more outlets to open in that same sector?

It is also notable that while this legislation might be good news for certain venues and premises which attract plenty of visitors, such as the museums and art galleries mentioned above, there seems to be little provision for underpopulated rural areas, struggling to keep any sort of venue open.

The Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI) has pointed out that rural pubs are already under pressure due to demographic changes and different consumer habits, which is a reasonable point to make about its members, but those are also large-scale societal factors with wider ramifications than their impact on the rural pub market.

A stronger point the VFI might make is the potential for this legislation to further denude swathes of the Irish countryside of one more community space. At a time when the State’s visibility in rural Ireland — post offices, Garda stations — is shrinking, and the Church’s presence is also fast receding, this measure seems destined to remove another category of shared space, with little on hand to take its place.