Mr. Donall O'Keeffe:

I thank the Acting Chairman and members of the committee for the opportunity to appear at this meeting to consider what is a critical issue for the licensed trade, namely, reform and modernisation of licensing legislation. The National Vintners Association is represented by chairperson, Ms Kealy and me. We would like to acknowledge the Government for its support of the hospitality sector during 2022. The 9% hospitality VAT rate, the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS, and the 50% cut in the cost of sectoral employment orders, SEOs, are important supports for the licensed trade. A further extension of the 9% VAT rate through 2023 is warranted.

I will now set out our position on some key policy issues in the Bill. First, the LVA welcomes the trading hours proposed in the Bill for traditional pubs, late bars and nightclubs and believes they are appropriate for a modern economy. In particular, we are pleased by the proposed introduction of an annual late bar permit and an annual nightclub permit as a suitable basis for licensing the late trade. We are delighted that the special exemption order, SEO, system is to be abolished under the Bill. An annual permit system for both late bars and nightclubs is a far better option. We agree that a publican’s hotel licence or a public house licence should be eligible to apply for late bar and nightclub permits. However, we strongly object to wine on-licences being allowed to apply for the late trading licences on the grounds: first, wine on-licensed premises are not allowed to have a bar; second, they are obliged to only sell alcohol with food; third, they are not permitted to sell spirits or beer; and fourth, there are fundamental operational management differences between running a food-led business with a wine on-licence and running a late bar and drinks or entertainment-led business or nightclub. Accordingly, it makes no sense whatever that wine on-licences be allowed to apply for late licences.

On restaurant licensing, the LVA supports that the new restaurant licence will permit restaurants to sell the full range of alcohol products. This is appropriate in this day and age. We also welcome the fact that the Bill is expressly clear alcohol can only be sold in conjunction with a substantial meal and the restaurant must not contain a bar counter. We feel that two additional provisions are warranted to ensure compliance with the intention of restaurant licensing as follows. First, a table service only provision should be included and, second, the restaurateur or operator should give an undertaking to the court that the premises does not contain a bar at licence grant or licence renewal.

Turning to cultural amenity licences, we support greater diversity in the night-time economy and recognise the role of appropriately defined cultural amenity licences in this regard. However, we do have concerns around the potential operation of such licences and the possibility that they may be used as a backdoor entry into the licensed trade. Our concerns are based first, on previous negative experiences and abuse of theatre licences and second, on the potential for an increase in the total number of licence outlets in urban areas as cultural licences are mainly going to be located in urban locations. Accordingly, we believe it is extremely important that the criteria for designation of both cultural premises and cultural events must be strict; the premises itself must have planning permission to operate as a cultural premises; and the use of cultural amenity licences by external third party promotion not be permitted. We have given other reasons which I will leave out for now.

The our core concern around the Bill is the proposed change the extinguishment requirement. We oppose this for new pub licences on the following grounds. The current licensing regime does not exist to protect publicans from competition but is there on public health and public order grounds and to provide regulatory control. The country is severely over pubbed with 6,800 pub licences. Some 1,800 pubs, or 20% of pubs, have closed since 2005, confirming a total oversupply. On-trade alcohol demand is in long-term structural decline. The combination of too many pubs particularly in rural Ireland together with falling demand means that overall pub numbers will continue to fall irrespective of any changes in the extinguishment requirement. New pubs are not going to open in rural Ireland due to too many pubs being there already and low prospects for viability. There are obvious public health concerns and public order concerns associated with a fully liberalised trade. Any new licences sought will be in areas of higher demand, namely cities, provincial towns and tourist locations. Who wants more pumps in these areas? In summary, removing the extinguishment requirement will not achieve the Minister's objective of enhancing rural pub viability and will prove a failed policy initiative.

It is clear that a huge amount of work has gone into the development of the general scheme. The LVA welcomes its publication and supports its objectives of modernising and codifying licensing law. We oppose the proposed change to the extinguishment requirement on the basis that will fail to deliver on the Minister’s objective of enhancing viability of the rural pub trade. Full liberalisation of the pub trade would be a serious policy mistake.