The Minister for Justice has indicated major changes in the liquor-licensing laws, including an increase in the number of pubs and a move away from "super pubs". Instead, he said, he would like to see a move towards small, community-based licensed premises. Mr McDowell said that this could help in reducing both under-age and binge drinking.
He promised a new codified liquor-licensing law within two years.
The Minister was speaking at the publicationof the second interim report of the Commission on Liquor Licensing yesterday. Allowing museums to serve alcohol, controlling the admission of children to licensed premises and codifying the law were among the commission's proposals. It also recommends more flexibility in granting licences for special occasions.
Introducing the report, the commission's chairman, Mr Gordon Holmes, said the Garda should oppose the renewal of licences for premises which engage in pricing and promotion practices aimed at increasing drinking among young people.
In relation to trading hours, it recommended that the system of exemptions be streamlined and brought together in a more accessible format. The substantial meal requirement should be discontinued for special events involving dancing and there should be provision for the granting of occasional licences to non-licence-holders.
Night-clubs should also be able to seek three-, six- or nine-month exemptions from the courts, but the Garda should be able to seek their revocation at any time. All night-clubs should be subject to the same court certification process.
One of its most innovative proposals is for a new type of non-transferable licence, to allow interpretative centres and museums to sell alcohol during their opening hours. Regional tourism offices would certify the premises, which should also be allowed to serve but not sell alcohol at functions outside normal opening hours.
The commission also recommends craft brewers be allowed to sell their own products on their own premises during pub hours.
Mr McDowell said the Government had already agreed that he begin the process of a codification of the entire liquor-licensing code, which would draw on the commission's work and recommendations.However, a core issue that the commission had yet to address was the availability of ordinary pub licences, he said.
The old system of quantitative restrictions on granting new liquor licences, where an existing licence had to be extinguished before a new one was granted, produced some very undesirable results.
"It contributed to the development of very large drinking establishments, or 'super pubs', which create noise and nuisance for local residents and make the controls on under-age drinking more difficult to enforce," he said.
"Moreover, when large numbers of people emerge from these premises at closing time, there is inevitably an increased risk of public disorder and we have seen the alarming effects of this on our streets in recent years."
Mr McDowell said he would like to see a return to smaller licensed premises serving the needs of local communities, whether in suburban centres or rural areas.
He believed reforms of the licensing system could be designed to control the increase in size and improve the spatial distribution of licensed premises.
"I would also like to explore how a reformed system of licensing might serve to bring about a change in society's drinking habits, particularly the undoubted tendency towards binge drinking."
Mr McDowell said the time had come to face up to the reality of the adverse effects of alcohol abuse, which were now widespread throughout Irish society, including car accidents and injuries from assaults both outside and inside the home.
He said the new measures in the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Bill would give gardaí significant additional powers in dealing with drunkenness and disorderly conduct.