The Competition Authority's interim study of the licensing laws for the retail drinks trade contains few surprises, but for that we should be grateful. For it would have been alarming indeed if any intelligent, disinterested group of people, looking at the mess of regulations governing the licensing of public houses in this State, and supplied with all the relevant facts and figures, had reached any other conclusions.
The authority calls for the repeal of the longstanding prohibition on the granting of new pub licences; an end to the provisions which protect existing establishments from new ones; and free entry to the market, subject only to checks on the suitability of the applicant and the premises, and compliance with fire, safety, health and planning regulations.
The restriction on the granting of new licences (contained in Section 2 of the Licensing (Ireland) Act of 1902) is clearly an offence to the principle of free competition. It has spawned the iniquitous system - like that governing taxi-plates - by which existing licences are traded for large sums of money. It has also led to startling demographic disparities. In Co Roscommon, for example, there is one pub for every 170 people; in Blanchardstown, Dublin, there are 13,000 people per pub. The average for Co Dublin is 1,119. As a result, many Dublin pubs have expanded to become enormous boozing emporiums - the very opposite of the quiet "local" of happy memory, and a rude shock to the tourist hoping to find the fabled Irish pub. This trend is at its most extreme in the populous outer suburbs, but is evident also in the city centre - especially in Temple Bar, where the energetic development of several super-pubs has beerily blurred the area's supposed image as a cultural quarter.
The Competition Authority recommendations, if implemented, would encourage new entrants to the market to exploit the demand for licensed premises in a variety of ways - some along traditional lines, others in a more Continental style, others serving a variety of niche markets. It is an attractive prospect.
The authority's recommendations will doubtless cause an outcry from the retail drinks trade, for as the report notes, "the licensing laws protect incumbents from competition and increase the value of licences held by incumbents." Many publicans have paid inflated sums - in some cases up to £500,000 - for their licences and reform of the system could be costly for some. But it would be wrong to allow an acknowledgment of their plight to inhibit overdue action in the interest of the common good.
Vintners' groups will argue that the most glaring anomalies of the present system could be corrected merely by transferring licences from rural to urban areas. But the Government must dismiss any temptation to tinker with a discredited system. It should face down the vested interests and legislate to give effect to the Competition Authority's simple and sensible proposals.