The town council in Killarney, Co Kerry, is to object to the renewal of licences of singing pubs which have breached acceptable night-time noise levels, its officials have decided.
However, vintners in Killarney said with new no-smoking rules, and now a clampdown on singing, "it will be no drinking next". Last summer an environmental noise monitoring survey into noise on the streets coming from pubs and hotel bars, showed a number had breached acceptable night-time levels.
The town council commissioned the survey following complaints from tourists about what they described as the "deafening" sound of music from pubs, explained Mr Denis O'Connor, town engineer in Killarney.
They also complained much of the music and singing was "tacky". Around 20 of the town's 60 pubs and hotel bars were surveyed and a good number of these found to be louder than was acceptable.
The council presented the pubs with their findings and asked for co-operation in tackling the problem. "Only a small few responded properly. We asked for technical proposals from their architect or engineer. Instead, we got a layman's comment 'sure it will be alright'," Mr O'Connor said.
The council was now notifying the offenders they would be objecting to the licence renewal in the District Court, unless there are immediate and serious proposals.
However, vintners in Killarney are angry at the threat of licence objection. "The way things are going they may as well close us down altogether." Already with no smoking, and now no singing, "it will be no drinking next", said Mr Paudie O'Callaghan chairman of the vintners federation in Killarney. Publicans took issue with the way legislation was affecting their livelihoods, he said.