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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