McDowell announces licensing legislation

Dail report: Minister for Justice Michael McDowell last night announced the repeal of some 600 licensing provisions in 100 laws to create a single piece of legislation.

He also announced a new offence of possession of a forged or altered age card, punishable by a fine of up to €3,000 or a 12- month sentence.

And he said that a garda may arrest without warrant a person who refuses to supply their name when asked as an additional measure to combat underage drinking.

Outlining the details of the new draft licensing Bill, the Minister said it would provide a "regulatory framework for the 21st century", and would "streamline the licensing system, improve public participation and improve compliance with and enforcement of licensing law". In addition the opening of off-licences would now require planning permission.

Hitting out at deputies who ridiculed his proposed cafe bars as the "naked advocacy" of vested interests, he warned that "you can't have it both ways".

It was time to "be brave and not be afraid of vested interests". It was both impractical and foolish to suggest the banning of sports sponsorship by alcohol companies, he said.

The Minister was speaking during a Fine Gael private members' motion on cafe bars, in which the party called for a co-ordinated approach to create a national alcohol strategy and the provision of the "necessary resources and direction to the gardaí to ensure that existing legislation is enforced and public disorder related to so-called super pubs" is countered.

Under the proposed Bill, a new District Court procedure would apply to all retail liquor licences. A new nightclub permit is to be created and manufacturers and wholesalers' licences are to be replaced, while the system for transferring licences will be stopped and the buyer will have to apply to the court for a licence.

Fine Gael's justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe described the controversy over cafe bars as a "huge and embarrassing public display of division and ineptitude within and between the parties in Government".

He accused the Minister of the "complete dismissal" of the professional opinions of the most respected public health experts. A member of the Strategic Task Force on Alcohol, Dr Joe Barry, had said the Minister's plan was "actually going to make matters worse", Mr O'Keeffe quoted.

And he referred to the Progressive Democrats' own national alcohol policy adviser Dr Ann Hope, who warned that "cafe bars are not going to reduce binge drinking. You cannot parachute a culture from one country into another."

Deputy O'Keeffe said Mr McDowell had shown "scant regard" for the public's intelligence by claiming that the proposal to fully license restaurants was "a more radical plan than the one he started with" to establish cafe bars.

"That call that radical is ridiculous. This is playground politics of the lowest order," he said.

Ireland was now second only to Luxembourg in the EU in alcohol consumption with a rate of 11 litres per person compared to an EU average of 9.1 litres.

Fine Gael's health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey claimed cafe bars for the "ravioli and chianti set" were a nonsensical notion. He said to Mr McDowell that "you see alcohol as the same sort of a commodity as a loaf of bread or a car. It is a totally different thing and a dangerous drug."