Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their contributions. I thought initially that this legislation would deal with difficulties with the licensing laws, of which there are many. There are difficulties with regard to the number of times that a publican has to go to court to get an extension, for example and I thought that was what this legislation would address. As has been alluded to, there are also issues around night clubs and how that sector is changing. However, we are now seeing the cracking open of other things that are somewhat unexpected.

I have four children, the youngest of whom is 18 and the oldest is 23. They are out and about all of the time and it is a different world to the one that I was out and about in. There are practically no nightclubs anymore. They just go to the pub and there is a culture of drinking a lot. It is about shots and throwing them down as quickly as one can. They do not go too wild, or at least I do not see them going too wild or they do not tell me about it, but the truth is that it is a huge problem. They tell me about some of their friends, acquaintances or people they know who, whenever they go out at night, never remember getting home. I am talking here about girls aged 20 or 21 years old. That is a huge problem in our society and it will be an awful lot worse when we go a few years into the future. There is a problem with people who indulge too much and who have created a culture where they get too drunk too fast. That is a big problem. There is also a problem on the other side with addiction, serious addiction problems and where that leads.

Some of our guests' submissions refer to the requirement for additional addiction services and propose a fund from the industry to pay for those services. Like other Oireachtas Members, councillors and people in public life everywhere, I deal with many people who are facing problems or who are in crisis. Families tell us of daughters, husbands or whoever it might be who have addiction problems and need to get treatment but cannot get into a facility because they do not have the money to pay for it. The HSE cannot find spaces for those people. It is a crisis for families. Even those who can access services attend for a while, drop out and go back on the bottle again. It is a cycle that causes turmoil in families. We must recognise that. We can include measures to address that in this legislation. There are things in the legislation that we did not expect to be in there so perhaps there is an opportunity to consider recommending other measures that are not yet in the legislation.

I am taken by some of the recommendations of our guests. Why do they believe the disclosure of the statistics in respect of annual alcohol sales is important? The inclusion of a social impact provision in the Bill would also be interesting. How and where would it fit? What benefit would it provide?

There is an overall direction in which we need to be moving. We are not killjoys. We do not want everybody to be sitting at home and listening to the ticking clock. We must have a nightlife and a place where people can enjoy themselves. However, the difficulty is the culture that has developed around that. I am taken with the point that education does not work. That is what we are hearing from our guests. What would work to change that culture?

Restricting hours has been touched upon. Some people might say that when the pubs closed earlier years ago, we all went home earlier and drank less. There were sometimes lock-ins that allowed people to stay later. The next day, they would be cursing themselves for staying out half the night. If the laws were more strictly implemented, would the situation be better? Would that make a difference? It seems from what our guests have said that it would make a difference. I would like to hear their remarks on those issues.