Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

With the agreement of the House, I wish to share my time with Deputy Deenihan.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. In principle, I welcome it. The thrust and background to it are extremely positive. The major issue is the direct link between the availability of alcohol and public order issues. This Government has allowed the number of alcohol outlets to literally mushroom in recent years. As a result, we saw a 57% rise in public order offences between 2003 and 2007.

I welcome the proposals to limit the opening times of off-licences and the new powers given to the Garda Síochána to seize alcohol in public places. One key point that consistently comes up in the report of the alcohol advisory group, which is the basis for this legislation, is the fact that the current legislation is consistently ignored by the relevant authorities. We cannot allow the latest set of proposals enacted by this House to be forgotten by the Government in respect of resourcing the authorities to ensure that what we enact is enforced. I have yet to see any commitment in respect of providing the resources to local authorities and the Garda Síochána to ensure that the legislation we bring forward here in this House is enacted and then enforced.

I welcome the fact that the previous Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, addressed a loophole I had flagged in the legislation in respect of supermarket loyalty cards. This is a positive development. I am disappointed that this issue ignores the fundamental problem we have at the moment in respect of the availability of alcohol, namely, below-cost selling. Nothing is being done in respect of this.

What is hugely frustrating is that I was criticised by the current Government Chief Whip in respect of the concerns I raised regarding the abolition of the ban on below-cost selling. I made the point that we should not throw the baby out with the bath water. I was ignored at the time and it was suggested that I would stop the introduction of cheap groceries. The exact opposite has happened. We now have cheap alcohol and grocery prices are going through the roof. Alcohol has been used as a loss leader in respect of getting people into supermarkets. This legislation does not address the issue of below-cost selling. It deals with marketing and promotion but ignores below-cost selling. That problem is the sole responsibility of this Government and the previous Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment who introduced the legislation to remove the ban on below-cost selling without looking at the huge implications it has.

Going through the legislation, it is very interesting to see some of the issues in it. I know we will get the opportunity to deal with them in more detail on Committee Stage but I will flag a logistical problem. A wine retailer must now get their off-licence directly from the District Court. We all know about the backlog in the courts at the moment. I understand that there are between 5,000 and 6,000 of these licences so it will take a significant amount of court time to deal with them. I accept the principle of what the Minister is trying to do but surely an alternative mechanism can be found rather than tying up the courts dealing with this issue. There are far more important things for the courts to do than deal with a wine retailer's off-licence. Wine and its availability is not the problem with which we must deal. It is not what is causing anti-social behaviour and under age drinking. Surely we can have a sensible approach to that.

I welcome the provision relating to CCTV systems at venues like nightclubs and late bars, which is a positive development. Many clubs and late bars already have CCTV in place but that additional protection will not only protect the public, it will protect the individual operator who is running a good business.

All Members received a considerable level of representations relating not so much to theatre licences as proposed in section 10, but to closing times and the need to have that differential between the closing times of public houses and nightclubs in place. All of us are aware of people who, because of their profession, cannot go out on Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. For many of them, their only social outlet is on Sunday night. They include people who work in the pub or nightclub trade, nurses, doctors, members of the Garda Síochána and so forth. We need to look at ensuring that the flexibility is maintained within the licensing laws in respect of this issue and that the differential remains. I have concerns about the abolition of that and believe people who want to go out and socialise on Sunday night should be allowed to do so. I do not see where there is any major difficulty with that in principle and I hope the Minister will look again at that issue before Committee Stage. International practice has shown that sequential closing is important in respect of public order. The objective behind this legislation is to improve public order.

I also welcome the provision relating to test purchasing. This is a positive development welcomed by most retailers and people. There are implications for the young people involved which I want to see addressed on Committee Stage. In respect of under age drinking and purchasing, I wish to focus on the issue of a national ID card. We can talk all we like here about under age drinking but unless we are prepared to address the issue of a national ID card, we are only talking in circles. Driver's licences have been used as national ID cards by many young people. They can easily be forged. When Deputy Séamus Brennan was Minister for Transport, we were promised a secure driver's licence system with credit card-type driver's licences in this jurisdiction within two years but that is still on the long finger. The Garda ID system is also prone to being forged. A number of nightclub owners have told me that they have come across forged copies of Garda ID cards.

We have seen the situation relating to passports. A significant number of passports go missing annually. Many of those stolen passports are ones that are being used by young people to prove their age. We should introduce a national ID card system. It is somewhat hypocritical for the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to introduce a national ID card for non-Irish citizens, but for him not to be prepared to put one in place for Irish citizens. This proposal is in the proposed new legislation on immigration.

Why do we not have a system whereby anybody using false identification will be prosecuted and fined? Currently, publicans or licence holders are prosecuted for providing alcohol to those under the legal age, but those who purport to be over the legal age are not. The responsibility is on the licensee to prove the person has a forged ID, but the presenter of the forged ID gets away with it. We should have a system of fines in place so that those using false ID face some penalty. This should not just apply to under age drinking, because there is significant abuse of identification here, for example with regard to PPS numbers. ID abuse seems to be brushed under the carpet, but I hope that on Committee Stage the Minister will bring forward some provision in this regard that will provide once and for all for a watertight national ID card system here.

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