Dublin city councillors are calling on the Minister for Justice to fast-track intoxicating liquor legislation to give local authorities the power to grant or rescind alcohol licences.
The council is seeking to extend its powers under the Intoxicating Liquor Act to give it authority over the granting of bar licences, the extension of licensing hours and sale of alcohol in non-licenced premises, such as petrol stations and shops.
Alcohol sales from shops and garages are not being properly policed, Cllr Christy Burke (SF) told the Oireachtas Justice Committee yesterday.
"The amount of garages and stores where alcohol is easily accessible to young people is completely unacceptable and in some stores and garages the sale of alcohol is simply not policed."
The council, rather than the courts, needed increased powers in the area of licensing, he said.
"I would appeal to the committee to ask the Minister to fast-track giving local authorities powers to allocate licences. There also needs to be some type of laws to put bar-codes on alcohol to trace back where it has been sold from."
Cllr Burke was speaking as part of a delegation from the Lord Mayor of Dublin's commission on crime and policing.
Lord Mayor Michael Conaghan told the committee that the Neighbourhood Watch scheme had failed to deliver on community policing and was now "largely redundant".
"Neighbourhood Watch - because it was a structure not based in law - there was an ambivalence about it and there was no legal onus on people to turn up and be accountable."
The lack of commitment to the scheme came not just from the community, but from within the Garda, he said.
"Superintendents, because of their workloads, were very often absent. Community policing needs to be set out in legislation if it is to work."
Responsibility for policing needs to be spread among the Garda, the council and community groups, he said.
There was provision in the Garda Bill for a volunteer reserve force, but Cllr Conaghan said he was concerned there would not be enough volunteers and queried whether the force would be deployed to areas of greatest need.
As an alternative to volunteers, the commission was suggesting supplementing the Garda with community safety personnel to tackle low-level crime.
