The nightclub industry reacted angrily this week to the threat of early closing. But public order is still an issue, reports Carl O'Brien.
Brian Spollen, the venue promoter of Dublin's Spirit nightclub, was pacing up and down outside Dublin District Court yesterday, muttering darkly into his mobile phone.
"We're going to be the laughing stock of Europe," he said angrily. "We're the late-night venue of the city. If this goes ahead we're basically going to lose 25 per cent of our business. You have to wonder where all this is coming from."
Gardaí had successfully asked the court to curtail the operating hours of around 15 nightclubs with theatre licences by one hour because of ongoing public order problems. Spollen was angry, but it wasn't as bad as had been feared.
Rumours started to swirl around the nightclub industry a week ago that the Garda was planning to cut back opening hours for all nightclubs in the city to 1.30 a.m. Already grappling with the effects of the smoking ban and relatively early closing hours, many felt as if the steel shutters of the State were rolling down on one of our most heavily-regulated industries, under the guise of tackling public order problems.
The Nightclub Industry Association, which represents around 150 clubs, rushed to the media to vent their anger. A volunteer group quickly organised an Internet-based campaign, www.giveusthenight.com, which attracted 15,000 signatures within days. Politicians, scenting an issue that had ignited public opinion, soon joined in the chorus of protest.
The blanket bans never materialised and gardaí yesterday said that reducing the opening hours of nightclubs with theatre licences was an attempt to bring their opening hours into line with other nightclubs.
However, as the din of opposition begins to quieten down, there are still some unresolved issues, chief among them the question of how to maintain public order while allowing adults to enjoy themselves.
Jay Bourke, who owns a number of late-night bars and nightclubs, including the Globe and Rí Rá, acknowledges that there is a public order problem but believes early closing is not the way to address it.
"The idea that, as one of Europe's capital cities, we should respond to a public order issue by closing the city down is ridiculous," he says. "We provide a service and most of us do a good job. I won't let people in if they're intoxicated or out of their minds. I'm not suggesting we should relax our laws, but we should think about the infrastructure of a city and make sure it takes people home in an orderly fashion."
The nightclub industry is seeking "sequential closing" for pubs and nightclubs (understandably, it prefers not to use the term "staggered closing") to prevent thousands of revellers descending on the streets at the same time. Garda plans to force city nightclubs to close at 1.30 a.m. would have made matters even worse, say those in the industry.
"Public disorder would most definitely increase if such a huge volume of people were spilling on to the streets at the same time," says DJ Cian Ó Ciobháin. "Secondly, it would place massive strain on taxis and public transport, a burden they are struggling with as things stand."
There has also been grumbling that plans to seek early closing of nightclubs had less to do with public order problems and more to do with lack of Garda manpower at night-time.
"We did a survey last year and there were six or seven gardaí on duty in Galway city on one night, and in one nightclub there were 30 doormen on duty," says Robbie Fox, of the Irish Nightclub Industry Association. "That makes no sense at all."
Official figures suggest that the public order issue is not the problem it was.
Until 2002 incidents were rising dramatically, but the figures for last year show that the number of assaults causing harm dropped by more than 21 per cent.
"There are a number of factors behind the drop," says one senior source at the Department of Justice. "There's been a big debate about the issue, we have new public order legislation with stiffer penalties, and the gardaí are policing closing hours more strictly than before."
However, Supt Ray Barry of Store Street Garda Station said that while there may have been a national drop in public order offences, there are still "pockets of the city" where it is an ongoing problem.
The nightclub owners' campaign against what it sees as injustices against clubbers and the industry comes at a convenient time. In a few weeks, a major piece of legislation on liquor licensing is due to come before the Oireachtas.
There are few signs, however, that there will be legislation for later opening hours for nightclubs beyond the existing 2.30 a.m. limit.
"It's all very well to say they have later closing hours in Spain and elsewhere," said one Department of Justice source, "but they don't have the binge-drinking problem we have."
Nightclub owners such as Robbie Fox, meanwhile, are not certain the threat of early closing has lifted.
"We've averted the problem for now, but I don't think it has gone away," says Fox. "We need to address issues like sequencing of closing hours if we're going to tackle the problem. If we don't do it in the forthcoming legislation, when is it going to happen?"