MOST publicans in the greater Dublin area would not favour unlimited pub opening hours, TDs were told yesterday. Pub owners there should be cut off point, Mr Frank Fell, chief executive of the Licensed Vintners Association, told a Dail committee yesterday.
Putting his organisation's case for up dating the licensing laws, Mr Fell submitted that, with the exception of Good Friday and Christmas Day, pub opening should be from 10.30 a.m. to 12.30 a.m., with an extra 30 minutes drinking up time.
The association believed this would be to the advantage of locals and tourists alike. Extending the hours, in effect to 1 a.m., would be simply acknowledging what was happening at present.
The current divide between summer time and winter time hours was anachronistic and had no relevance to those living in urban or rural areas. It should be abolished, along with the present limits on Sunday trading.
The tendency now was for families in all categories to eat out on Sundays. Over the last 15 years or so, the licensed trade, particularly in the Dublin region, had developed a very significant service in reasonably priced pub food, Mr Fell told the Dail Committee on Legislation and Security, which is examining the licensing laws.
He said present opening hours went back to Victorian times when it was felt alcohol abuse could in large measure be reduced or contained by limiting opening hours.
That concept was unacceptable nowadays when customers were, on the whole, more mature, better nourished and far more educated. Extending hours of trading for the pub trade, which was the most controlled environment within which to drink, would do much to further the objective of promoting sensible drinking.
Mr Alan Shatter (FG), said it was one of the greatest fallacies of our time that restricting opening hours made a contribution to tackling alcoholism. Many alcoholics drank secretly in their homes.
He could not understand the reasoning behind the suggested 12.30 a.m. limit. The market and competition effectively determined what retail opening hours, should be.
The committee had heard that drinkers tended to order two or three rounds together to beat or extend the present drinking up deadline. There was no reason why they would not do the same "if an hour extra was legally allowed. Would it not be much better to permit the individual publican to decide on opening and closing hours? Why should the law lay down a specific time? "If there is no demand you will not be open." The LVA was really making that case whether it realised it or not.
Mr Fell said a significant number of association members would support flexible opening. But the organisation was trying to live with the art of the possible. It was not in favour of legalising all night drinking in pubs. The longstanding culture of curtailment had conditioned members thinking in this regard.