Public order offences in Tralee, Co Kerry, have decreased "significantly" since a reduction in late-night pub and club opening hours by a mere half an hour, a senior garda has told a meeting of the town's Joint Policing Committee.
However, Section 3 assaults (causing harm under the Non-fatal Offences Against the Person Act) continued, and some of these within pubs and nightclubs were being deliberately disguised by proprietors, Supt Pat Sullivan told the committee.
Injured people were being taken to hospital by proprietors and gardaí were not being informed, "and there's obviously a reason for this," Supt Sullivan said.
Tralee, with a population of 20,300, is one of 22 towns and cities where the new joint policing committees provided for in the Garda Síochána Act, 2005 have been established.
Last October, a judge at Tralee District Court agreed to a Garda application to curtail serving times of late-night pubs and clubs to 2am throughout Kerry, to be reviewed after a year.
Gardaí had objected to applications at the annual licensing court for special exemptions to 2.30am in the belief that an earlier closing time would to curtail violence and disturbance and assaults on gardaí on the streets.
According to preliminary statistics, the first four months of the earlier closing had seen a reduction in public order offences, which include disorderly conduct, intoxication in a public place, threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour, obstruction and assaults on gardaí.
From October to January, arrests for these type of offences late at night - last October they amounted to up to 40 a month - were down by one-third compared to the same period the previous year, he said later.
Vintners who were at the meeting by invitation spoke of difficulties with ID systems to curtail underage drinking.
Danny Leane said: "The ID system is not working. Most nights we get passports, driving licences and IDs that have been tampered with." Proprietors handed these over to gardaí.
John O'Sullivan said below-cost selling of alcohol by supermarkets and off-licences had led to uncontrolled binge drinking.
There were calls for restraints on ordering drink by taxi and for greater checks by home delivery off-licences to ensure the alcohol was not for underage drinkers.
A reduction in pub prices to curb home drinking was also suggested, to ensure that the tradition of controlled social drinking rather than home drinking continued.