Bill on alcohol does not go far enough Dukes

The latest legislation on alcohol does not go far enough, according to Mr Alan Dukes (FG, Kildare South) who called for a single Bill which would repeal all previous Intoxicating Liquor Acts.

Mr Dukes dismissed comments by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, that the Bill, which extends licensing hours, was "wide-ranging and progressive" and that it did away with decades-old restrictive legislation on access to the market.

Mr Dukes said he hoped that the commission on licensing which the Minister was setting up "will be given the remit to carry out a fundamental modernisation of the law". He believed, however, that setting up the commission was "yet another example of the kind of long-fingering of simple, basic but contentious issues which has become one of the hallmarks of this Government".

Ms Roisin Shortall, Labour's spokeswoman on children, criticised the Minister for not putting the Bill in a "social context".

She called for strict curbs on the advertising and promotion of alcohol "particularly the sponsorship by drinks companies of events that are targeted at young people". She said they had to consider whether it was appropriate for drinks companies to sponsor virtually every major musical or sporting event.

Such advertising "undoubtedly has a subconscious impact" on young people in glamorising the use of alcohol, and there was "a close association between alcohol and practically every activity in Irish society".

Mr Noel O'Flynn (FF, Cork North Central) said there was great concern about under-age drinking and the ease with which young people were able to ask older persons to purchase alcohol for them from off-licensed premises which they drank on city streets, in housing estates and at the gable end of houses.

The practice in Cork was referred to as "gatting", which was often followed by a visit to the disco, leaving many of our youth on the streets at a very late hour in an intoxicated condition.