Political focus on cafe bars criticised

The controversy about cafe bar licences and the tension between the Government parties is distracting from the real issue, according to a campaigner against alcohol abuse.

Denis Bradley, chairman of the North West Alcohol Forum (NWAF), which has just launched a pilot programme aimed at combating "harmful drinking", said he was getting "a bit annoyed" with the focus on whether Fianna Fáil or the PDs had got their way.

"We are having the wrong debate," said Mr Bradley, founder of an alcohol and drug-treatment centre in Derry and vice-chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

"The PDs are big boys, and Fianna Fáil are big boys, and they can look after themselves. It is the young fellow who may commit suicide, the battered wife, the fellow who has been admitted to the accident and emergency department for the fifth or sixth time I worry about."

He said there was too much emphasis on the licensing aspect in the proposed legislation, and not enough on health issues.

Having lived in southern Europe for several years, he said, loved cafe society, but he did not think cafe bars on their own would be the answer to the worsening problem of alcohol abuse in this country. The pilot project, Action on Alcohol, which was launched by the Minister for Health last weekend, was one of the recommendations in the forum's report, Portrait of our Drinking, published last year.

It found almost one in four patients presenting at A&E in Sligo and Letterkenny was intoxicated, and that alcohol was the second most common reason for admission to acute psychiatric services in the region.

The forum, the first of its kind in the country, includes representatives from the Garda, judiciary, youth councils, Traveller community, medical professions, politicians, vintners, Probation Service, clergy and education.

Mr Bradley said cafe bars were a good idea, but experience had shown that Ireland, when it imported a drinking culture, did not do away with the old one.