Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and everyone else for their presentations today. I will have to leave after this engagement as I am also on the Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. There is a clash, I must to go next door, so my apologies in advance.

I have read all the submissions. I have two by two, that is four questions. I will ask all of the questions first and will then get replies, if I may. I have two questions for the Irish Community Action on Alcohol Network, ICAAN and two for Mandate.

Public health is something I am interested in but I am sceptical with regard to extending the licensing as to time and its impact on public health. I know that Ms Lawless said that the evidence is clear and I am not sure that that is the case. I have experienced many different European cities where the nightclub and nightlife scene can start anywhere from 11 p.m. until 3 a.m. I have seen how the bus routes run, how that phased going home of people from compact cities occurs, and have seen less public order issues in those spaces. I know that Dr. Gilheany mentioned Culture Night and family night, and that is all well and good, but obviously culture is diverse and not everybody is going to be interested in those earlier family events. The nightclub scene, for me, is a very special case when it comes to the sale of alcohol.

I also believe that there must be a public health and an education message in there but whether that is for this Bill or should be contained in the Public Health (Alcohol) Act, and the parts of that legislation that have been commenced; I am not completely sure. I am still somewhat ambivalent about how we approach all of that. Of my two questions, one is in respect of the drink delivery services in communities. On reading the presentation from ICAAN, it appears that our guest speakers are saying that these come from pubs. In communities like mine that is not the case, so I am wondering how one licenses that, because it is just random people selling alcohol. As a teenager, we had people in communities whose door we would knock on and buy alcohol from them. It was sold wholesale from their house. Can our guest speakers explain a little bit more as to how they might see this being addressed and contained within this Bill about licensing?

My second question refers to the child protection objective. Can ICAAN outline why it is recommending that a child protection objective is included in the legislation?

I will deal quickly with my two questions for Mandate. It made many recommendations but I will just pull two of these which stood out to me the most. One of those is that due to ownership in the licensed trade sector, which has been very fragmented over the years resulting in the weakening of central and collectively bargained terms and conditions which were previously enjoyed by bar workers; I ask how have these been weakened?

My second question asks about the capacity of the WRC. The Australian and New Zealand models are mentioned where inspections are carried out by trade unions. Can Mandate elaborate a little bit further, please, on how that works in Australia and New Zealand, if it is the case that the WRC is not resourced at present to carry out those inspections itself? I thank the Chair.