Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in. I did not hear all of their opening statements as I was listening in my office but I got the gist of most of them. On the Bill, when something is wrong, it is never right. No matter how we try to talk it up it is not going to be right. I do not know how the Minister or the Government thought they could sell this Bill to the nation.

People are not fools. Saying that places should stay open until 6 a.m. is totally and absolutely ridiculous. We have to think of the youngsters who would go into these places and be there until that time of the morning. We have to think of their health and how it would affect them. When I was a young fella, I went to biddy balls and that is the one occasion I would be out until 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. I was not the better of it for two or three weeks. I do not know what it would do to you, but there is a big difference in being out until that time or out until 2 a.m. I did not drink. For the record, I never drink. I live in and serve in a pub and I have done so all my life.

Pubs are regulated. There is a duty and an onus on a publican, because it is not always easy to get the licence if you do something wrong. The licence may not be renewed. You have to see after your customers. I know right around the circuit in which I work that publicans do so. We see the Government and many Members of the Oireachtas did not help rural publicans going back, when all publicans were asking was that customers would be allowed to have two pints and drive home on very narrow country and hilly roads where they could do no more than second or third gear. That was shot down out of hand. We did not get a hearing. Now the Government is saying opening later will help publicans, until 2.30 a.m. for most people most nights or until 6 a.m.

There is another aspect. I have a statement attributed to the Minister that she would put on transport to bring people into these centres. I have no gripe against the representatives from Dublin but this is basically to help Dublin or other cities. It is not for rural Ireland. I know what is happening in rural Ireland. People who need their cars in the morning have no other way to go work in the morning in places such as Gneevgullia or Scartaglin. They cannot walk to work or to these venues, given the distances. It is all wrong. No thought is given to it.

I think I heard Deputy Kenny ask about workers. We know that even restaurants are curtailed in the number of servings they can give in their restaurants. That is early in the evening. They cannot get workers to work past a certain time. We are expecting workers to work until 6 a.m. or 7 a.m., until they clean up. How will they go home? When my young fellas went out, myself and Eileen worried about them until they came in the door at night. How could parents of 17-year-olds or 18-year-olds be expected to stay up all night wondering when the call will come to bring them home? I am sure there will not be transport to bring them home. Parents will be relied upon to do so. It is very wrong to do this to our youth coming up. They will go out the night before and not be home until the next day. Youngsters will not see the rest of that day or many days after it, because they will not be thinking right after a night such as that.

With regard to off-licences, more drinking is being done at home in front of children and that is wrong. People were better off in a regulated setting. Do the witnesses have any comments to make?