Crackdown on underage drinking

Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern have announced details of a new scheme which will see…

Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern have announced details of a new scheme which will see gardaí using underage teenagers to check if pub, nightclub and off licence staff are serving alcohol to minors.

Under the new scheme gardaí will recruit teenagers aged 15 to 17 years from schools and youth clubs and send them into licenced premises to try and buy alcohol.

Any pub, club or off licence which sells drink to any of the minors will face fines and being ordered to close by the courts for up to a month.

Mr Ahern and Mr Murphy published details of the schemes guidelines at the Department of Justice in Dublin this afternoon.

The proposed new Garda investigations, which will effectively use children as undercover agents working for the force are set to begin next month. They will at first target licenced premises that have been at the centre of long running public complaints.

Mr Ahern said the use of young people in the covert test purchases will soon be extended to so-called dial-a-can operations, in which retailers sell drink over the phone and then deliver it to the buyer's home.

The young people to be used in the latest operations will volunteer and can only take part in the "test purchase" investigations with their parents' consent.

At least one undercover garda will watch the young person attempting to purchase the alcohol on the targeted licenced premises. If the young person is sold drink the undercover garda will give evidence in court of having witnessed the illegal sale.

Mr Murphy said the young person should not need to go to court to give evidence.

"This will be done by the garda who witnesses the sale," he said.

The young people who sign up for the test purchase scheme will dress according to their age and no effort will be made to make them look older either by choice of clothes, make-up or jewellery.

The teenagers will also be given training in how to act on a covert operation. However, they will be not be permitted in any way to coax a staff member to sell them alcohol after they have initially been refused.

"We are not getting into entrapment here," Mr Murphy said.

Mr Ahern echoed those views.

"I want to stress that the objective of the scheme is to ascertain whether a licensee is complying with the law, not to trap an unwary licensee into committing an offence. The test purchaser must answer all questions about their age truthfully," he said.

Under existing laws a licensee convicted before the Courts for the sale and supply of alcohol to an underage person can have a closure order imposed on their premises for a week and be fined €3,000 for a first offence. Subsequent convictions can lead to closure orders of up to 30 days and fines of €5,000.