Madam, - I was dismayed to read your congratulatory Editorial of August 18th on the Minister for Justice's new liquor laws. He has once again overlooked the glaringly obvious fact that the public order offences so evident on Dublin's streets are a direct result of inadequate policing.
Underage drinking, being drunk on a licensed premises and assault have been against the law for many years. The lack of enforcement of these existing laws is the single biggest obstacle to safer streets.
These new regulations are simply a headline-making diversion from the fact that the Government has failed to provide the capital with the extra gardaí promised in the last election.
The next time someone is being attacked with a broken bottle in the city centre they can relax in the knowledge that the perpetrators have not come from a happy hour! - Yours, etc.,
SEAN MOONEY, Castaheny, Dublin 15.