It was meant to reduce alcohol abuse, but nightclub owners say the Intoxicating Liquor Act 2008 is threatening the future of the industry and has led to an increase in trouble on the streets

IT'S A SATURDAY night in Dublin in the lead-up to Christmas. At 1.30am the Kings of Leon can be heard blaring from the Gaiety Nightclub on South King Street. A steady stream of stylish, well-groomed young things make their way from the adjoining box office to the club front door, having paid €15 for their tickets.

The night should only be starting. For their €15, however, the revellers will get just one hour in the venue, with its two bands, several bars and a number of DJs, until they are asked to leave at 2.30am. The night is, in reality, almost over.

Until July 31st these clubbers would have been able to stay dancing until 3.30am. However, the enactment of the Intoxicating Liquor Act 2008 changed all that.

Under the terms of the Act, which aims to restricts the "availability and visibility" of alcohol and to provide "for more effective enforcement to deal with the consequences of alcohol abuse", nightclubs and late bars must close their doors at 2.30am from Monday to Saturday and at 1am on Sunday.

Before the change in the law, venues with live music or a DJ (whether clubs or bars) could apply for an annual theatre licence for €270 per year, and serve alcohol until 3.30am seven nights a week. With drinking-up time, it could be 4am or later when people poured on to the streets. Now the clubs, like late bars, have to apply for each individual extension to 2.30am to serve drink, something which a costs in the region of an annual €150,000, (€410 a night) in legal fees.

The new legislation followed various reports over the years showing that Ireland has a spiralling alcohol-abuse problem. A Government-appointed Alcohol Advisory Group study found an increase of 76 per cent in the hospitalisation of intoxicated people between 1997 and 2002 (when alcohol consumption peaked) and an increase of almost 70 per cent in the number of off-licences and mixed-trading premises authorised to sell alcohol between 2001 and 2007.

Those opposed to restrictive club hours argue that the changes have done nothing to reduce alcohol abuse and that the new law is killing nightclubs. They also claim that earlier closing has led to an increase in public order issues, with everyone leaving clubs and late venues at the same time.

Before the new legislation, those in the late bars left at 2.30am and those in the clubs left at 3.30am, staggering the impact on the streets. It is argued that the new law won't stop people who want to abuse alcohol. The will do so at home or in a pub rather than pay a door fee into a club.

According to figures from the Irish Nightclub Industry Association (INIA), the average per-capita consumption in nightclubs is two and a half drinks. Barry O'Sullivan, chief executive of the INIA, predicts hefty job losses and nightclub closures across the State in the New Year.

David Morrissey, owner of one of Dublin city centre's most popular nightclubs, Lillie's Bordello, says that all a club now offers, over and above a late bar, is a dancefloor and a better lighting system. And punters are being asked to pay up to €20 for that.

David Carroll, junior manager of the Sugar Club on Leeson Street, also laments the earlier closing times. "Town isn't what is was a year ago," he says. "It has lost something".

ON SATURDAY NIGHT, Dublin lacks the buzz one might expect in a European capital in the run-up to Christmas, though matters are not helped by the sub-zero temperatures and the recession.

Penelope Martin (23), from Co Laois, on her way into the Gaiety club, is "disgusted" by the earlier closing.

"It messes up my whole regime," she says. "We're used to staying at home until 11.30pm and then going out. We expect to get a night out of it. You used to be able to stay out dancing until 4am, a proper night out. Now you're kicked out just as you're getting going. You wouldn't come into town to go to a club as often now."

Erica Southern, from Dublin, is in her 30s and is smoking a cigarette outside Renards at about 2am. She feels that the new laws are the wrong way to try and curb drinking.

"We are responsible adults who have good jobs, who work hard and want to just go out and have some fun at the weekend," she says. "We're in our 30s and we respect these clubs."

The clubs visited by The Irish Times are busy but not jammed, though a number of people who spoke to this reporter were obviously intoxicated, swaying and slurring their speech.

Out on the streets, dancing Santas, young women telling a group of tourists they "love, love, love the Brits", and a giggly row between two girls outside Burger King over who ended up with the most beer in their hair, sets the tone for some of the post-club life.

There are a few ugly scenes, including a punch-up involving about six men on Middle Abbey Street at about 2.45am, which ends only when a Garda van arrives on the scene. There is also the sight of a young man lying on his side on Westmoreland Street at 3am, making one worry that if he isn't moved soon he will die of hypothermia.

A group of three men shove a fourth up against the shutters of a shop on Westmoreland Street.

Fast-food outlets are very busy, with long queues at branches of McDonalds, Rick's and Supermacs. There are a lot of gardaí on duty and fleets of Nightlink buses lined up around College Green and Westmoreland Street.

At the taxi rank at College Green, a group of about 60 people queue in sub-zero temperatures shortly after 3am.

By 4am the streets are almost clear, the busiest being Leeson Street, where a large crowd seem to be involved in one big conversation as they drift off gradually in twos and threes towards the taxis that are on their way back into town for the last few fares of the night.

Robbie Fox, owner and manager of Renards, says the new Act has "destroyed" Sunday-night trading to such an extent that he no longer opens on Sunday night, while business overall is down about 50 per cent.

The manager of the Gaiety nightclub, Seán O'Connor, says business is down about 40 per cent since July. While he acknowledges the impact of the economic downturn, he insists that the Act had an "immediate" effect.

Like Fox, he says the hour between 2.30am and 3.30am used to be the "most profitable" in terms of drink sales and that it is not matched by sales between 1.30am to 2.30am.

"In any industry, to reduce trading hours by 25 per cent is going to be a serious matter. In practice, customers will be in a bar until it stops serving and will drink up until about 1am. They don't get to us until about 1.30am."

Falling takings at the door and the bar have already led to job losses in the industry, and O'Connor predicts more in the new year.

"We can't pay people for doing nothing," he says.

Fox says tourists are "absolutely flabbergasted" and cannot believe that the entire country is restricted to going home at 2.30am. This, he adds, will inevitably hurt the weekend tourism industry.

Sunil Sharpe, spokesman for the Give Us the Night lobby group, representing workers in the music industry, says DJs, visual artists, dancers and promoters have all "felt the pinch" with many staff losing shifts, and DJs on reduced fees.

As a rationale for pulling back licensing hours, the Alcohol Advisory Group cited a fourfold increase in criminal proceedings for abusive and threatening behaviour in the decade between 1996 and 2006. It argued that if the streets were cleared sooner, there would be less scope for trouble.

However, Supt Joe Gannon, of Pearse Street Garda Station in Dublin, who oversees weekend-night policing in the busiest night-life district in the State, says he has seen no reduction in levels of disorder since the new Act came into force.

"The difference is the streets are cleared earlier," he says. "When we had the theatre licences one lot were coming out of bars at 2.30am and another lot coming out of the late clubs at 3.30am, so there were people on the streets until about 5am.

"Now they are all coming out together at 2.30am. The fast-food places don't have the capacity for them all, so a lot head straight home.

"If it is staggered, there is less volume at once, which is easier to deal with. There is less potential for volatility on the streets."

Tommy Gorman, president of the National Taxi Drivers' Union, says the change has also led to the old problem of people not being able to get taxis. His members are getting maybe two fares in the rush at 2.30am before it all dies down. Previously, they could have been busy until about 5 am.

BARRY O'SULLIVAN, of INIA, is hoping the forthcoming Sale of Alcohol Bill, due before the Oireachtas early in the new year, according to the Department of Justice, will include a specific nightclub licence to differentiate his members' establishments from pubs.

"If it leaves club closing hours at 2.30am though, it will do nothing to address our concerns about jobs and the industry as a whole," he says. "I think a closing time of 3.30am or 4am is realistic."

Intoxicating Liquor Act: main provisions

Pubs can open until 11.30pm from Sunday to Thursday and until 12.30am on Friday and Saturday nights.

Special exemption orders allow a bar to stay open until 2.30am. Theatre licences, which previously allowed a club where there was a live performance to remain open until 3.30am, have been abolished.

Alcohol can be sold in off-licences between 10.30am and 10pm from Monday to Saturday and between 12.30pm and 10pm on Sundays. On St Patrick's Day, Sunday hours are applicable.

The Act empowers gardaí to seize alcohol from minors and to take drink from people if they feel there is a risk of public disorder.

There are increased fines for those who break the law on alcohol sales. Publicans or off-licences found selling alcohol to minors face orders for closure.

There is now a special court application process for those seeking a licence to sell wine.