Irish Taxi Forum
Public Area => Taxi Talk => Topic started by: silverbullet on December 26, 2019, 04:16:46 pm
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Tourists find Irish nightlife 'disappointing', Taoiseach says
By Juno McEnroe
Ireland's drinking laws should be reviewed as visitors here often are left disappointed when premises serving alcohol shut down too early, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
Mr Varadkar said the licensing laws needed to change, as he noted cities such as Madrid and Berlin where premises stay open all night and there has not been an increase in public order offences.
Asked by journalists if the licensing laws were archaic and needed change with tourists being asked to leave licensed venues at 11pm, Mr Varadkar responded:
“Yeah, I think they do. I don't necessarily think that we need to have the same licensing laws for everywhere. Suburban Dublin is different to town and rural areas are different again. So I think we do need to have a degree of local control around licensing.
But, you know, people who come to Dublin and come to other Irish cities and people go abroad from Ireland do say that our nightlife can be disappointing and that premises shut down too early.
“It's very different in Madrid or Germany or other places, you know where places can stay open all night. And that doesn't lead to increased levels of public order offences and can be better in terms of transport because instead of everyone rushing out in the streets looking for a taxi at the same time, that's spread over a longer period of time. And it's an area that I think we need change in.”
Representatives of licensed venues and festivals told an Oireachtas Committee recently that businesses were closing because of the restrictive drinking laws.
The committee was told that there are no specific provisions for the operation of nightclubs, late bars or other late-night entertainment outlets under the Licensing Acts. Therefor, nightclubs and late bars are allowed stay open beyond normal hours on the basis of the “special exemption order” mechanism, in which they have to apply with specific reasons.
Department of Justice officials told the committee that a public consultation on bar and nightclub hours was forthcoming.
Arts Minister Josepha Madigan is currently assessing late night opening hours, but for facilities and events such as galleries, poetry readings and music.
Two pilot projects are underway looking at how night mayors can help develop night activities in cities, including Cork.
But Ms Madigan’s officials say drink-serving hours are not part of this assessment.
Nonetheless, Mr Varadkar believes Ms Madigan is overseeing any changes on this:
“Minister Madigan is leading a group on this. And also we put out the idea of authorities appointing night mayors. And other things to reinvigorate our nightlife, which of course shouldn't be all about drink. You know, one of the weird things is that licenced premises, even if they have stopped serving alcohol, they can't stay open.
You know there may be people who still want to stay open and dance and so on and they're not allowed to, once you stop serving drink you have to close down I think within half an hour or so, so they are really archaic. I think we can do better for people who enjoy the night in Ireland and tourists and it is something that we are very much working on.
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I've been sayin that since the 80's.
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I’ve been saying it since they changed the laws about 8-10 years ago.
Places used to close at different times spreading out the work for night time drivers and resellers, whereas now everywhere closes at 2:30am
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time to do away with that not being able to buy Arthur Scargill after 10pm gick as well.
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We need longer licensing hours as much as we need another famine !
Granted the offie should be the same as the pubs, and the ridiculous 12.30pm on Sundays and church holidays should go, but leave the rest alone, not like anyone takes any notice of it at all outside of any city bounds.
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I've been sayin that since the 80's.
Why do you think that Hal ?
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Dumb fuck thinks they should build a bridge between Norn Eireann and Scotland while here at home he wont build houses .
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I've been sayin that since the 80's.
Why do you think that Hal ?
Wasn't that long ago that one TD wanted all the takeaways in town(Dame St in particular)to close before pub/nightclub closing time to stop people hanging around leading to fights etc.....closing times imo lead to binge drinking.....only in this fukin country when the lights flash there would be a queue 10 deep at the bar with cunts ordering 4 pints,4 G&T's,2 baby guinness and a whiskey chaser...and that was just for their burds.....but they decide to close the offies at 10pm to stop binge drinking.
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The publican lobby is in action but young people are smoking and snorting the day of the pub is over its an occasional outing now not a way of life .Greedy money grabbing publicans while off licence prices dropped and sales moved to supermarkets the publicans tried to maintain their margins by increasing prices at will .When I start drinking the price of a pint in every pub was the same now it can be nearly double .Back in the day Publicans spent big on decoration and maintenance now they wont wash the windows .Even GAA clubs dont open the bar mid week.
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This is good for us if it happens.Staggered hours mean less pressure on night drivers at closing time.Less hungry bastards having to sell people to sell drink to from their boot at a 60% mark up...Less lads picking and choosing their jobs and trying to charge more than the metered fare.Less chance of the NTA opening the flood gates again so wide...more revenue for the government to pay for all the 24 hour ambulances and cops.Probably won't happen though.
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They should make the Chinese stay open 'till the last man leaves the last pub to close in every town. Personally I doubt Dublin publicans want to do away with closing time. Where closing time is of less consequence you just get different groups going in to the bar at different times. For example, I often go to my local well after 23:00 'cos I know there's no hurry to leave but if I'm going for a pint in Kyles up above in Dublin I'll be in by 21:15 'cos I know they'll stop serving shortly after 23:32. From the publican's point of view it probably makes more sense to keep all the drinking classes on the same timetable as turnover doesn't necessarily increase by staying open later but overheads do.
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They should make the Chinese stay open 'till the last man leaves the last pub to close in every town. Personally I doubt Dublin publicans want to do away with closing time. Where closing time is of less consequence you just get different groups going in to the bar at different times. For example, I often go to my local well after 23:00 'cos I know there's no hurry to leave but if I'm going for a pint in Kyles up above in Dublin I'll be in by 21:15 'cos I know they'll stop serving shortly after 23:32. From the publican's point of view it probably makes more sense to keep all the drinking classes on the same timetable as turnover doesn't necessarily increase by staying open later but overheads do.
The Chinese could run a food and beverage establishment in Coolock
KYLE CHANG CAINE'S..KUNG FOOD!! 8)
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I've been sayin that since the 80's.
Why do you think that Hal ?
Wasn't that long ago that one TD wanted all the takeaways in town(Dame St in particular)to close before pub/nightclub closing time to stop people hanging around leading to fights etc.....closing times imo lead to binge drinking.....only in this fukin country when the lights flash there would be a queue 10 deep at the bar with cunts ordering 4 pints,4 G&T's,2 baby guinness and a whiskey chaser...and that was just for their burds.....but they decide to close the offies at 10pm to stop binge drinking.
So if we were to get longer licencing hours and the Lights didn't Flash anymore.
What exactly do you think the outcome fer Paddy the Irishman would be, Hal ?
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Verooka just wants the bars to open later cause hes probably an alcoholic.....
Nawful cnut
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I've been sayin that since the 80's.
Why do you think that Hal ?
Wasn't that long ago that one TD wanted all the takeaways in town(Dame St in particular)to close before pub/nightclub closing time to stop people hanging around leading to fights etc.....closing times imo lead to binge drinking.....only in this fukin country when the lights flash there would be a queue 10 deep at the bar with cunts ordering 4 pints,4 G&T's,2 baby guinness and a whiskey chaser...and that was just for their burds.....but they decide to close the offies at 10pm to stop binge drinking.
So if we were to get longer licencing hours and the Lights didn't Flash anymore.
What exactly do you think the outcome fer Paddy the Irishman would be, Hal ?
They have 24 hour drinking in UK, but pubs, clubs, nightclubs can choose to close at anytime thy wish. Usual the local pubs still close at their normal times, but if resellers want to continue drinking they move to another establishment
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Ye see Ken...that's been the problem for generations for Paddy the Irishman....your thinking is that we'll have people stumbling all over the kip...well more people...but unless we change and in my opinion should have changed that mentality yonks ago we'll continue to have binge drinking(ye don't hear that term much anymore),most people know when they've had enough and just head home and the ones that always fall out of a pub will no doubt continue to do so and i'll continue to drive past them....but if they fall out later than usual they could probably get the bus and save those taxi drivers who usually anchor their car for any fare the hassle of dealing with them...i'll still be going home at 3am...
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Didn't they extend the official closing time up above in Dublin on Thursdays a few years back and change it back again because it didn't work?
These days there are late bars in suburbia at the weekends. In fact I actually went to work at midnight last night - I prefer to finish at midnight but I was watching the darts - and worked till 04:00 this morning. Plenty coming from the bar(s) in Coolock village between 02:30 and 03:00. The interesting thing is they still only emerge when the bar closes, there were millions - no, more than that, thousands - of taxis informally ranked the rest of the night - not me, Horse, it's not an unofficial stand I use!
In my day we used to go to the local and then on to the disco when that closed. These days the kids seem to drink at home and go to the local late bar or a disco after what used to be closing time... the problem, for publicans, being that the longer hours and higher overheads aren't generating significant incremental turnover. However, the real problem publicans have is folk being afraid of the morning after breathalyser, opening later wouldn't help overcome that. I guess we have to accept cultural shifts, towns are becoming more populated all over the place while pubs are closing down.
Your last orders observation is correct, Hal. I always get 2 after the lights flash in Kyles whereas I only order one at a time in my local 'cos I know I'll be sold another if I want to buy another.
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The Irish drinking mentality Hal, is to drink until the shutters come down or you fall, whichever comes First and in my younger days I would be the First to put my hand up and be found guilty of that. It was the way we were reared, drink as much as you can and try to get a sneaky one or two afterwards.
The European mentality is different because they were reared different, they went to a pub which never closed so they were never under pressure to get the Last One in.
IMO longer licencing hours would just mean more drinking late in to the night and less work done the next day.
11.30pm mid-week, 12.30am on weekends and the 2am fer the Late bars is just fine IMO.
If someone makes a decision to go to a late bar, then they are also making the decision not to go to work the next day.
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Two issues being entangled Tourists like to drink later Irish will drink later.Alcohol sold in Pubs generates multiples of tax against alcohol sold in Lidil bar workers pay tax and PRSI .Leo says he will cut INCOME tax usually paid by high earners and increase Pensions .The perfect Election pitch to both Rich and Poor .So where does the funds come from to pay for all this .Hidden taxes like excise duty PAYE from migrant workers who will stay a few years then fuck off the people who will work the late night bars for chump change .The divide in Irish Society is huge Google Ghetto workers on 100K plus a year and Big Dommos Kids living in their grannys parlour on the dole as minimum wage wont buy them an extra sandwich a week .Later opening hours is just an excuse to drive drunks back into the pub for higher tax yield next will be Green taxes on Fuel,heating,Electricity,The 100 notes a night hospital bed fees will be added to with a small fee to attend National School and Secondary School after all we pay a fee for third level already .The Days we lived in are gone .Corpo houses ,decent bus service ,GPs available by going to the surgery no appointment necessary all a thing of the past .We are now Americans with Irish accents .If you cant pay then Fuck off .Watch the Civil Service shrink with technology your Passport ,Car tax renewal ,Tax P45 or clearence all done on line removing workers from the process.There is a revolution on the way It will start in South America then Africa then Europe .The day when a working man could home and feed a family is gone .Tax is smothering the worker from PAYE ,VAT at point of sale .Excise Duty on drink ,smokes or fuel ,Property Tax ,Death Duty ,Motor Tax .and if you did manage to save a few Sovs they want DIRTax .Late night opening is just a way to get tourists in and Irish Drunks off the sofa and the cheap gargle and back into the high yield taxable Bar trade .
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Jaysus John.....local pubs will stick to their normal routine,i'm talking city centre....the amount of workers who work late shifts who'd only love to head into town for a few beers with their colleagues after a shift,i've had loads of them sharing a taxi to their respective addresses of a night/morning.....it's one aspect that we haven't moved with as per our EU partners,
Ken mentioned about it being our culture to drink till the shutters fall or the person falls.....we've done nothing to change that and with Dublin being so "cosmopolitan" anall.
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Workers working shifts dont earn enough to drink in the city 7 or 8 yoyo a cup .Look at Clondalkin Village mid week only the staff in the pubs .Drugs have overtaken drink as the anesthetic of choice .A spliff cheap vodks and Netflix young people dont want to go out mid week late bars wont make a difference .Publicans are still living in the 70s when the pub was the focal point of any community now its the internet and Lidil take away counter .5 euro for a bottle of red red wine .Late bars wont work as a tax grab .A lad with 150 to spend on drink wont have any more to spend even if the pub is open .
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Didn't they extend the official closing time up above in Dublin on Thursdays a few years back and change it back again because it didn't work?
These days there are late bars in suburbia at the weekends. In fact I actually went to work at midnight last night - I prefer to finish at midnight but I was watching the darts - and worked till 04:00 this morning. Plenty coming from the bar(s) in Coolock village between 02:30 and 03:00. The interesting thing is they still only emerge when the bar closes, there were millions - no, more than that, thousands - of taxis informally ranked the rest of the night - not me, Horse, it's not an unofficial stand I use!
In my day we used to go to the local and then on to the disco when that closed. These days the kids seem to drink at home and go to the local late bar or a disco after what used to be closing time... the problem, for publicans, being that the longer hours and higher overheads aren't generating significant incremental turnover. However, the real problem publicans have is folk being afraid of the morning after breathalyser, opening later wouldn't help overcome that. I guess we have to accept cultural shifts, towns are becoming more populated all over the place while pubs are closing down.
Your last orders observation is correct, Hal. I always get 2 after the lights flash in Kyles whereas I only order one at a time in my local 'cos I know I'll be sold another if I want to buy another.
There was late opening ( 00.30) on Thursday, and 01.30 Friday/Saturday.
Vested interests argued that people were missing work on Friday as a result of the Cafe bar hours:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/pd-anger-after-mcdowell-abandons-cafe-bar-plans-1.454735 (https://www.irishtimes.com/news/pd-anger-after-mcdowell-abandons-cafe-bar-plans-1.454735)
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Pub Culture is Dead .Country pubs looking for local hacks or free travel to try get people onto bar stools .City pubs looking for longer opening hours ,wont make a difference .
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Pub culture might be dead in the burbs.....town is hoppin John.....get out of the boxroom and venture outside the Clondalkin bubble.
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My local is busy on Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday. Yes midweek it’s dead. But after 12:30 some people would like to go party elsewhere, and then after 2:30 they’d love to again but they can’t.
The young people drink at home, then go to the nightclubs about 1am just to be out and socialisng.
In Spain, the nightclubs only open at 11pm, no one goes til 12:30 but they are open til 4am.
The local pubs still close at 12 or 1. And if someone wants more alcohol they go to a nightclub. Most of the locals all drive to the nightclub, pay in and then have a party at their car cause they have a shed load of drink in the boot.
Longer opening hours won’t make us drink for longer, it’ll just give us more opportunity. As opposed to the partner who doesn’t finish work til 10pm, gets home, showers, changes, gets to the pub for 11pm, they now have 120 minutes to get as much drink into them as possible. If that place opened til 2:30am , they have 4 hours. Meaning they have more time to drink their pints in peace.
My wife and I, we like to head over about 8pm, have our few pints and be leaving in and around last orders.
The days of ordering 2 or 3 pints each at closing time is long gone as the bar staff just take it off of you and out the door you go if it’s not drank in 30 minutes
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That's it Vik.....we probably have more foreign folk living and working here and i've had it said to me about closing times....you can get a beer in McDonalds in most european countries and rarely see people stumbling around the place.....unfortunately the scum in this country fuk everything up!!
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That 100% Hal. Bunch of idiots running the circus
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Pub Culture is Dead .Country pubs looking for local hacks or free travel to try get people onto bar stools .City pubs looking for longer opening hours ,wont make a difference .
Definitely changes happening. Many bar staff telling me that 00 alcohol sales are way up, particularly since Heineken Draft, came in, and now Carlsberg coming with similar. Coors Light very big seller.
Girl passenger working in a suburban bar for last 4 years.
Xmas Eve turnover 2016 €38k, 2018 €14k, 2019 €12k
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Pubs are much more expensive now.For someone on a tenner an hour before tax giving away a days wages to go on the piss isn't value for money when their rent is so high. The pubs wanna sell pub food for restaurant prices...and craft beer another gimmick to charge €6.50 a pint to sophisticated pallets.Mebollix.
Weatherspoons on Abbey street can charge €3.80 a pint and still keep their doors open.I see they bought the bar beside the taxi rank on Hanover quay near the Marker hotel.Nothing wrong with their business model.
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Pubs are much more expensive now.For someone on a tenner an hour before tax giving away a days wages to go on the piss isn't value for money when their rent is so high. The pubs wanna sell pub food for restaurant prices...and craft beer another gimmick to charge €6.50 a pint to sophisticated pallets.Mebollix.
Weatherspoons on Abbey street can charge €3.80 a pint and still keep their doors open.I see they bought the bar beside the taxi rank on Hanover quay near the Marker hotel.Nothing wrong with their business model.
Wetherspoon’s will take off here eventually. Like Aldi and Lidl did, it took time and people being snobby towards it. I’ve had their breakfast and I didn’t like it but I’ve not tried their beers yet.
Do they still have one in Dun snobby kip on south side that the ferry used to go to?
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Pubs are much more expensive now.For someone on a tenner an hour before tax giving away a days wages to go on the piss isn't value for money when their rent is so high. The pubs wanna sell pub food for restaurant prices...and craft beer another gimmick to charge €6.50 a pint to sophisticated pallets.Mebollix.
Weatherspoons on Abbey street can charge €3.80 a pint and still keep their doors open.I see they bought the bar beside the taxi rank on Hanover quay near the Marker hotel.Nothing wrong with their business model.
Wetherspoon’s will take off here eventually. Like Aldi and Lidl did, it took time and people being snobby towards it. I’ve had their breakfast and I didn’t like it but I’ve not tried their beers yet.
Do they still have one in Dun snobby kip on south side that the ferry used to go to?
Yeah....the 40ft and the old Tonic boozer in Blackrock....good enough for dem!!
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Yeah....the 40ft and the old Tonic boozer in Blackrock....good enough for dem!!
Ya see, we live 7 minutes from the dart station so 7 minute walk, 30 minutes to Dun Kip, few cheap dr8nks and then back on the dart. Wouldn’t use those taxi drivers, they are only scum. ;D
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Most of the youngsters won't walk 7 minutes to their local these days... taxis everywhere.
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Wetherspoon’s will take off here eventually. Like Aldi and Lidl did, it took time and people being snobby towards it. I’ve had their breakfast and I didn’t like it but I’ve not tried their beers yet.
Do they still have one in Dun snobby kip on south side that the ferry used to go to?
Dunno. i was a fan but they're serving travellers in Swords now so, as they say on Dragon's Den, I'm out! Trouble is English folk are very literal so assuming all their managers are English they'll all serve travellers because that's the law. Maybe after one or two of their pubs are smashed to smithereens they'll take a leaf out of Tesco's book, withdraw and come back as Wetherspoons Ireland with Irish branch managers.
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Most of the youngsters won't walk 7 minutes to their local these days... taxis everywhere.
Ours is only 2 minutes from the house, takes 35 to walk home though, funny that isn’t it
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Most of the youngsters won't walk 7 minutes to their local these days... taxis everywhere.
Ours is only 2 minutes from the house, takes 35 to walk home though, funny that isn’t it
Me ol man used to walk to the boozer...and come home by rail....his words!!
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Most of the youngsters won't walk 7 minutes to their local these days... taxis everywhere.
Ours is only 2 minutes from the house, takes 35 to walk home though, funny that isn’t it
Disgracer. When I see App jobs from Grange Road etc I avoid the area.
Loads of Skobes with plastic cups full of beer swearing " I won't spill it I promise "...Fuck em.
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Wouldn't take an app job from any pub. If you want to drive drunks drive by and have a look at what you're picking up. There's no need to buy that sorta work in the current economic climate.
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Wouldn't take an app job from any pub. If you want to drive drunks drive by and have a look at what you're picking up. There's no need to buy that sorta work in the current economic climate.
The Killer does be hopping, and no bribes eider!
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Most of the youngsters won't walk 7 minutes to their local these days... taxis everywhere.
Ours is only 2 minutes from the house, takes 35 to walk home though, funny that isn’t it
Disgracer. When I see App jobs from Grange Road etc I avoid the area.
Loads of Skobes with plastic cups full of beer swearing " I won't spill it I promise "...Fuck em.
I ignore them too if I start earlier than normal. And I usually drive past them too lol