There is now a growing clamour from Irish publicans to have legislation concerning licensing hours in public houses changed. At the annual conference of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland in Tralee yesterday, both the outgoing president of the federation, Mr Paul O'Grady, and Mr John Mansworth, a Cobh publican who has succeeded him, endorsed calls by 500 members of the VFI for urgent reform of the laws.
Mr Mansworth told the conference the bottom line was that Irish people who visited pubs were being treated like children under the current, outdated laws. "They must be treated as the responsible adults they are," he said.
It would be of vital importance to the licensed trade for the laws to be amended for the coming summer season so as not to continue "the ridiculous situation of seeing people thrown out of pubs in daylight when they wished to enjoy a drink later in the evening".
Mr Mansworth said it was the VFI's hope that the Joint Oireachtas Committee reviewing the licensing hours would recommend an extension of trading hours, the abolition of the Sunday 2 p.m.4 p.m. closing time and special trading hours for particular nights of the year, such as New Year's Eve, St Patrick's Day and bank holidays.
"Our research shows that people are coming out to the pub later in the evening than might have been the case 20 or 30 years ago," he said.
In his final speech before leaving office, Mr O'Grady said politicians were hearing "from all angles" the case for longer opening hours.
"The electorate is telling them that the laws need changing. Of course, we do not want to force people to stay in our pubs longer than they wish, just to be able to stay there for that little bit extra on nights when they themselves feel that they wish to do so. We must treat our customers with some respect. But where is the respect in shouting `Time, please' only an hour after people have come out for the evening?"
Mr O'Grady said the latest attempt at "zero tolerance" in respect of the licensing laws created confusion. In his own county of Galway, the Garda authorities appeared to interpret the opening hours on St Patrick's Day one way, for example, while elsewhere in the Republic there was a different interpretation.
"Zero tolerance is all very well, but the manner in which it is being implemented piecemeal in targeted areas of the country is disgraceful. There is now a mood for change on the issue of trading hours throughout the country, and the politicians cannot long-finger it any more," he said.
The conference was told that a survey had shown that 52 per cent of Irish people were impressed with the improvements in public houses in the past three years. Service, hygiene and cleanliness also scored high marks in the survey. Mr Mansworth said this reflected the fact that 88 per cent of Irish publicans had invested over £200 million in their premises in the past five years.
There were also renewed calls for the introduction by the Government of a mandatory national identity card scheme. This issue has been raised at the VFI's conferences for several years but, according to VFI officials, the Government has not responded. The VFI says the only way to stamp out under-age drinking and the abuse of alcohol by young people is to introduce an identity card scheme.