Madam, - Considering that he has just issued a report for his Commission on Liquor Licensing it is surprising that Mr Michael McDowell appears to have learnt nothing about the licensed trade, or he would not state in a speech, as he did, at the recent PD conference, that publicans make a profit by "reducing people to stupefaction".
Publicans do not knowingly serve drunks. This is not because Michael McDowell tells them not to, but for an even better reason. They do not make money out of drunks.
Drunks are trouble. They break things, sometimes deliberately; they vomit, they may injure themselves or others; they pester other customers who will take themselves elsewhere and they are sometimes violent and are generally bad news. They usually get drunk at a busy time of day, and persuading them to leave the premises with as much diplomacy as possible takes up the time of highly paid senior staff who could be profitably selling drinks.
However, publicans can make mistakes. It is difficult to decide until too late who has had too much to drink and who has not. A well-oiled party will always send the most sober member up to the bar to place an order, and it is remarkable how a single customer, having been refused in one pub, can pull himself together when he has to and clearly order a drink in another.
The average publican is only too anxious to carry out his legal obligation to keep an orderly house.
As to keeping order on the streets, that is the province of the Minister for Justice. - Yours, etc.,
BRIAN COWLEY, Lower Pembroke Street, Dublin 2.