Alcohol bans on young offenders coming before the courts are having "a major impact" on the number of public order arrests in the Co Clare area, Supt John Kerin of Ennis Garda station said yesterday.
Supt Kerin confirmed that public order-related arrests were down 12 per cent last year in the Ennis district on 2002 figures, bucking recent national trends.
He attributed the drop in part to local District Court Judge Joseph Mangan placing effective alcohol bans on public order offenders.
Supt Kerin said Judge Mangan's approach of having offenders provide urine samples free of drugs and alcohol for four weeks after their appearance in court "has certainly had a major impact".
The urine samples are taken under the supervision of a doctor and submitted to a laboratory for analysis before being presented to Judge Mangan.
If all the samples are not available at the adjourned date, the judge orders the offenders to repeat the process.
In his court orders, instead of immediately imposing fines or jail terms, Judge Mangan also excludes offenders from Ennis at weekend nights.
Offenders are also being subjected to professional reports carried out by addiction counsellors on their drug and alcohol abuse at their own expense.
Supt Kerin said: "It is a huge cost for them and hitting them in the pocket is the only thing they seem to know."
The approach has already been endorsed by the Fine Gael spokesman on Justice, Mr John Deasy.
Supt Kerin added that the drop in public order arrests is also due to the deployment of extra gardaí on Ennis streets at weekends, along with the stiff sentences being handed down to offenders by Judge Mangan.
He said: "Young people are finally realising that if they are out and are disorderly, that they are likely to be arrested and likely to face the courts."
Supt Kerin said: "When I came to Ennis, you had a lot of recidivists or repeat offenders being arrested and coming before the courts but there are fewer and fewer of them now."
In a separate initiative dealing with public order, Supt Kerin said that the operators of late-night licensed premises in Ennis have agreed not to serve alcopops or double measures of spirits in the last half hour on Friday and Saturday nights.
In return for complying with the conditions asked for by gardaí, the establishments will be allowed to continue serving alcohol until 2 a.m.
