Sir, – While I applaud any reason to lift the spirits in this gloomy age, unfortunately I can’t turn a blind eye to the cost to the taxpayer of events like Arthur’s Day.
While Diageo gets a massive boost for their Irish Guinness brand, it is the taxpayer who, through funding for local authorities, is left with the bill for the cost of policing the crowds, cleaning up at the end of the evening and the large number of ambulances racing around our cities and towns to save another drunk reveller who didn’t know when to stop.
The evening was also a very visual reminder of why Róisín Shortall was so passionate about the radical measures she had proposed while in office as part of her alcohol strategy, which now seems under threat (Home News, September 28th). Here’s hoping that at least some, if not all of her proposals are implemented sooner rather than later. – Yours, etc,