GARDAÍ ARE planning a major pre-Christmas clampdown on the sale of alcohol to minors by staging undercover operations in pubs, clubs and off-licences during which children will be sent by gardaí to try to buy drink.
The new operation will begin next month and will at first target premises that have long been suspected of selling drink to minors.
Any licence holder found to be breaking the law will be prosecuted, fined up to €5,000 and ordered to close for up to 30 days.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said the planned test purchases did not represent entrapment of publicans. Instead, they simply aimed to increase licence holders’ compliance with the law.
He added that under the new Sale of Alcohol Bill, which is being framed, he wanted to strengthen the Garda’s hand in targeting retailers who sold drink by phone or online but did not ask for proof of age when delivering the alcohol to the buyer’s home.
“I want to consider a parallel scheme of test deliveries of alcohol which would cover home deliveries to under-18s, and also deliveries to any person where payment is accepted on delivery.”
Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said the new powers allowing test purchase of alcohol by minors on licensed premises were vital in helping to reduce alcohol-related disorder.
“I believe they strike an appropriate balance between the need to protect the community, the need to look after the safety and wellbeing of young people, and the need to have regard for the rights and interests of licensees.”
Mr Murphy and Mr Ahern were speaking in Dublin yesterday at the launch of guidelines for the test purchasing by minors of alcohol. Under the scheme, young people aged from 15 to 17 years will be recruited by gardaí to carry out test purchases. Gardaí will recruit them using the force’s existing contacts with schools, youth clubs and other organisations. The young people and their parents must consent to taking part, and will not be paid.
During test purchases, a young person will go into a pub, club or off-licence and attempt to buy alcohol. They will be watched by an undercover garda already on the premises. If they are sold alcohol they will walk towards the exit, where they will surrender the drink to another garda waiting at the pub or off-licence door.
When the licence holder is prosecuted and the case goes to court, both gardaí will give evidence. The young person who carried out the purchase will, in most cases, not be needed to attend court.
The teenagers used cannot be made to look older than they are by styling or make-up. They cannot lie about their age, and once they are refused service must abandon the test purchase without coaxing staff into a sale.
Mr Murphy acknowledged that some licence holders may fight prosecution, and insist on the young person who carried out the test purchase coming to court to give evidence. However, he hoped this would not be the case.
Mr Ahern said a system of test purchasing tobacco products was already in operation, and most of those prosecutions were not aggressively fought. “I would suspect a lot of publicans caught out with this would put up their hands and not challenge ,” he said.