James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is important, and this is in the legislation as well. All the debate has been about licences and on licences and the serving of alcohol. I am interested, however, to get to the heart of licensing permutations and the different categories of venue and what licences might be granted for. As Senator Warfield said, there are also dance and music licences. I refer to the details of how these operate. Is it an option that a venue could apply for a dance licence without an on licence, etc.? These permutations would be quite useful. Whether drink is supplied should not be the only arbiter of whether a venue can stay open late. It would be really useful to tease this out and produce perhaps more useful legislation. Ultimately, that is why we are all here. It is to do these exercises.

Turning back to Ms Graham - often these sessions take a different direction as the conversation continues so we do not hear much about certain aspects - and the public transport element this is something this committee has considered recently in terms of safety on public transport, during the day and at night. Several of us met with representatives of the National Bus and Rail Union, NBRU, and we heard different concerns expressed regarding the safety of workers and commuters. In her opening statement, Ms Graham focused on the roll-out of services. I refer to 24-hour bus services in Dublin and Cork, and perhaps other areas will be examined. This is great and very welcome in respect of service provision. Has the NTA concerns, however, around late-night bus services regarding public safety in the context of a later licensing environment? I ask this question in a context where we are already seeing incidents on public transport being reported regularly. What, if any, measures could be taken to address this issue?