The observation is often made that the tourist or visitor to Ireland, whether from Europe or beyond, is incredulous when confronted with the Republic's archaic licensing laws: the adage that Ireland has some of the best pubs in the world but manages to keep them closed for longer than almost anyone else has a ring of truth to it.
But it is not just the tourist who is bewildered, the natives are also confused. The situation this bank holiday weekend is not untypical: in most cases those choose to frequent a public house are required to leave shortly after the summer closing time of 11.30.
But the haphazard nature of our licensing laws means that some pubs, who now enjoy a bewildering range of special exemptions, can remain open until at least 1.30 a.m. Meanwhile, those who are required to vacate a public house at 11.30 p.m. can drink on at discos and at special functions, provided the premises in question is serving chicken and chips or suchlike.
Given this bizarre state of affairs, the case for some clarity and precision in our licensing lawn is unanswerable: the existing situation brings the law "into disrepute and its erodes the authority of the Garda. This is scarcely surprising: as the chairman of the Dail Committee on Legislation and Security, Mr Charlie Flanagan, has observed, our drinks laws are "outdated, archaic, defective and confusing, involving 40 different statutes from Victorian days". A move away from our paternalistic British influenced drinking laws to the more relaxed European attitude towards drinking hours would better reflect the life style of modern Ireland.
Any such move is, of course, fraught with danger. The concerns that have been expressed about the possible increase in teenage drinking and road traffic accidents, and about the wider impact on society and business, are genuine and well motivated. But in making a case for more liberal drinking hours one is not supporting greater consumption of alcohol. On the contrary: there is a strong case for allowing people to drink at a more reasonable pace and to give them greater responsibility for their own actions.
To its credit, the Legislation and Security Committee has now initiated a review of the State's licensing laws. It is discussing possible changes with the Department of Justice and it has invited submissions from the various interested parties. A proposal by one of its members, Mr Derek McDowell, that drinking hours should be completely deregulated at weekends, is provocative and worth exploring. But it may be naive to expect that a Dail committee can, of itself, achieve substantial change in such a complex area in which there are such entrenched vested interests on all sides. A clear signal from the Government of its intentions in, this area, in conjunction perhaps with the long promised National Alcohol Policy, is overdue. The present chaotic state of our drink licensing hours cannot be allowed to continue.