Medical organisations, addiction support agencies and youth groups have accused a south Dublin pub of being "irresponsible", "dangerous" and encouraging binge drinking. This follows its offer of an all-you-can-drink promotion.
"Monthly Madness" is the name of the promotional event run by the Madhatter pub in Blackrock on the last Saturday of each month. The event offers customers the opportunity to consume unlimited quantities of any drink, barring champagne, for a cover charge of €40 for men and €25 for women. The pub opens at 8 p.m. and serves until 12.30 a.m. with one hour's "drinking-up time".
The director of the Rutland Centre for addiction treatment, Mr Stephen Rowen, has described the promotion as "a prescription for disaster" which needed to be stopped from a public health and safety point of view.
He said: "This promotion is very dangerous, given the levels of excessive drinking already present in Ireland. It's encouraging binge drinking by encouraging people to drink at least three, four or five times the safe upper limit."
The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) has also called for an end to discount drink promotions.
"It's a very worrying trend and if it's successful I'd expect other pubs will do likewise," Dr Fintan Howell, dean of public health medicine at the RCPI, said. "Encouraging this type of drinking flies in the face of the vintners' code."
Mr Colm Ó Mongáin, information officer of the National Youth Council and a member of the Commission on Liquor Licensing, has also questioned the legality of the event.
"There is an onus on publicans to act responsibly and discourage drunkenness on licensed premises. Under the Intoxicating Liquor Act they are obliged not to serve an intoxicated person," he said.
This promotion was a highly irresponsible marker to put down. "Having a set charge provides a challenge to people to drink themselves into profit," he believed.
The manager of the Madhatter, Mr Mick Moran, has denied the promotion encourages binge drinking and has described the event as "a novel idea" and "an alternative to an expensive night out in the city". "I think a lot of those who are against this are taking people to be pure fools altogether. People don't go out to get blotto and get sick. Nobody likes to be seen to be drunk." There had been no public order issues last Saturday night, he added.
Last Saturday was the inaugural night of the event, but Mr Moran said he intended to continue it monthly because of its success. "It was more profitable than a normal Saturday night. We had three or four-times greater profit," he said.
The majority of customers were around 24 or 25 years of age, Mr Moran said. The most popular drink was the "alco-pop" Smirnoff Black Ice.
Last week the Department of Health established a committee arising from the Task Force Report on Alcohol. This type of promotion will form part of the committee's remit.
