Liquor Bill proposes historic reform of licensing laws

The first reform of the liquor licensing laws in the history of the State has been announced by the Minister for Justice.

The first reform of the liquor licensing laws in the history of the State has been announced by the Minister for Justice.

A new type of licence providing for "cafe-bars" as an alternative to traditional public houses is included in the heads of a Bill published by Michael McDowell.

The scale of the Minister's proposals is underlined in the document containing the heads. It runs to almost 300 pages and will replace more than 600 licensing provisions currently spread over about 100 statutes. Many of these provisions are now obsolete.

Mr McDowell has announced a consultation period, to the end of May, to discuss the new provisions. He is particularly seeking submissions from the public and from local authorities. The licensed trade and other interest groups have already expressed their views on many of the provisions, which were contained in the 2003 report of the Commission on Liquor Licensing.

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New, specially tailored licences for nightclubs will be introduced, with longer opening hours than pubs. Mr McDowell indicated yesterday that he did not anticipate such clubs being allowed to open beyond 3.30am.

There will also be a tightening of the law relating to theatre licences, to ensure that only theatres, and not pubs or clubs, can avail of them.

Off-licences will also have to have written policies and control procedures, and it will be an offence to use a forged Garda age card. Four different counterfeiting operations producing such forged documents were discovered by gardaí in the past two years.

However, the centrepiece of the legislation is the creation of the new category of cafe-bars, as an alternative to what Mr McDowell described as "dedicated drinking establishments". These cafe-bars will be limited in size to 130sq m.

This proposal came first in the 2003 report of the Commission on Liquor Licensing and received the enthusiastic support of the Minister.

He has frequently expressed the view that smaller, Mediterranean-style cafe-bars, where food and alcohol are available together, would inhibit binge-drinking and allow for better control over under-age drinking.

"It is undesirable that dedicated drinking, in dedicated drinking establishments, should be the only form of social interaction in Ireland," he said yesterday.

The present licensing system has led to the creation of super-pubs, he pointed out, with licences changing hands for an average of €170,000. The new cafe-bar licence is expected to cost €10,000 to €15,000.

Representatives of the licensed trade have argued that Ireland is already "over-pubbed".

However, the Minister said yesterday he expected some smaller pubs to sell their licences and reinvest in the new cafe-bar licences.

As well as the cafe-bar proposal, the Bill proposes a streamlined District Court procedure for all retail liquor licences, which at the moment are spread over the District and Circuit courts.

It will give power to local authorities to object to licences in certain areas, and to the Garda Síochána and the public to object to licences for public order and other reasons.

Proof of planning permission and compliance with planning conditions and fire safety conditions will have to be presented to the District Court when a licence is sought.

This will end the present situation where there is no connection between planning and licensing laws, and which permits pubs to expand - often into adjoining premises - on the basis of the licence they held for the original premises. Many Dublin pubs have expanded, almost beyond recognition, as a result.