PAUL BOWLER,
A chara, - I can't understand the recent furore about the effects of alcohol on Ireland and its people. Are our politicians and public worthies merely being hypocritical when they wring their hands about the public drunkenness and violence, or are they genuinely admitting to being unaware of how the Irish public has been behaving for decades?
Many are now demanding more restrictive licensing laws. How will this help? What point is there in adding new laws to those already unenforced by the Garda? They are unable to prevent illicit drug taking, so why suppose that they will experience any success against alcohol?
Moreover, what moral right do people have to tell adults what they may or may not ingest? If adults wish to drink themselves into early graves then that should be their choice. If we wish the Garda to be useful, however, then it should be directed to do something about under-age drinking. In this at least there is a moral right and a moral obligation to prevent drug taking by minors.
Enforced and draconian laws that seek to protect young people may actually see some benefit accruing. As a suggestion, any young person found drunk should be arrested. Then their parents should be arrested. Then they should be given a choice. Testify against the supplier or face a custodial sentence.
All it will take is one pub, one off-licence and one "helpful" adult to suffer before young people actually experience some difficulty in getting alcohol. -
PAUL BOWLER,
Yours, etc.,
Grosvenor Park,
Dublin 6.