Seán Connick (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I welcome publication of this Bill. I hope this debate gives us an opportunity to examine not only the specifics of this Bill but also the wider issue of the place of alcohol in Irish society. Alcohol has always played a central role in Irish social life. For the vast majority of people, a trip down to the local pub to have a few drinks is an important part of their week and is a central part of their social life. The local pub is the centre of many local communities and plays an important role in combating social isolation and loneliness, particularly in rural areas.

In recent years a culture of both drinking at home and binge drinking has arisen. In the six-year period up to 2007, the percentage of alcohol sold by the off-licence trade in Ireland has risen from 30% to 52%. While a wide range of factors has contributed to this, such as the impact of the smoking ban, stricter enforcement of drink-driving laws and the cost of drink, the problem that arises from this increase is that this new culture of drinking at home diminishes the social aspect of going to the local pub and leads to people drinking for the sake of drinking.

This increasing culture of binge drinking is having a very negative impact on family life and society. Family break-ups and domestic violence fuelled by alcohol are increasing rapidly. A recent HSE report showed that more than a quarter of domestic violence incidents took place as a result of excessive alcohol consumption. The same report showed that 46% of all murder and manslaughter cases involved alcohol and that public order offences increased threefold between 1996 and 2002.

People's attitude towards alcohol consumption is primarily a matter of personal responsibility. In a mature society, there should be no need for Government to regulate people's private lives and every citizen should be free to drink alcohol responsibly. Unfortunately as we have shown in recent years, a growing number of people are not prepared to take personal responsibility for their drinking and for their actions while under the influence of alcohol. As a result the Government has been left with no choice but to introduce Bills to regulate people's access to alcohol. I welcome the publication of the Bill and commend the Minister for the speed with which it was introduced. The Bill, and the forthcoming sale of alcohol Bill, will help to moderate our society's relationship with alcohol.

The number of premises that can sell alcohol for consumption off the premises has ballooned in recent years and has certainly been one factor in the increase in drinking the country has witnessed. While it must be recognised that the vast majority of retailers adopt a very responsible attitude towards the sale and promotion of alcohol, I very much welcome the Bill's proposals to restrict the hours that these premises can sell alcohol and the new licensing regulations for them. Proposals to restrict alcohol promotions and reduced-price sales are particularly welcome. I know of a number of cases in my constituency where publicans purchase certain brands of drinks not from their wholesalers but from the local supermarket. If members of the public are able to buy drinks from a supermarket cheaper than a publican can buy them in a wholesaler, we have to assume this is encouraging people to purchase far more alcohol than they normally would. This form of pricing on the part of retailers is adding to the culture of excessive drinking we have seen develop in recent years. I acknowledge the submission made recently by the Vintners Federation of Ireland to the Government alcohol advisory group. Its proposals on this form of discounted selling in the off-trade have much merit and I hope they will be incorporated in any final regulations devised on the issue of the reduced price sale of alcohol.

I particularly welcome the Minister's decision earlier this week to defer section 8 of the Bill on segregation. This was causing a great deal of concern, particularly among smaller grocers and the supermarkets. I am delighted that, following his meeting with the representative groups of the organisations, they decided a code of practice would be put in place and that it would be independently monitored. I was also struck by the responsible attitude of the many convenience store owners who visited my office or called to see me at clinics in recent weeks regarding this Bill. They described how they can effectively monitor the sale of alcohol. Whether in Bunclody, New Ross, Ramsgrange or whatever area of Wexford, I was struck by how responsible the owner-operators of the supermarkets were. I also welcome the fact that the segregation of wine has been exempted. This was very important to the supermarkets and the customers. People like to browse the wine aisles and read the labels when purchasing a bottle of wine. Putting it behind the counter or in a controlled area may have been a step too far.

One area of this Bill which will need some clarification is the proposal to serve closure orders on premises which are found to have served alcohol to minors. While any proposal such as this which will encourage extra vigilance against under age drinking is welcome, there is some confusion in the retail sector about its implementation. This should be clarified before these proposals are implemented. Retailers and shop owners are unsure whether a closure order served on a shop will see the closure of the off-licence section of this shop for a particular period of time or the closure of the entire shop. I ask the Minister to clarify this issue for retailers before he implements this proposal. I also welcome the reprieve for the early licence holders. There are very few of them left and we could refer to them as old Ireland. The Minister's decision on them was very welcome. They have not contributed in any way to the anti-social behaviour we have seen.

An issue relating to the sale of alcohol for consumption off the premises on which I would like to see a new focus is delivery services. Certain off-licences offer a service whereby customers can phone in an order for drink, have it delivered to their door and pay the delivery man on arrival. Although this practice is not widespread, this form of delivery service makes the task of preventing minors from purchasing alcohol far more difficult. It also opens up the legal issue of where the sale of alcohol takes place, in the off-licence when the phone call is made or in the home when the delivery man accepts the payment. Although there are regulations to cover this form of transaction, they are not strictly enforced and I would like to see the Garda vigorously target any business offering this service. I recently heard the story of a group of people who put a call in to an off-licence and got a taxi driver to deliver slabs of beer to a remote location. This kind of practice must be tackled very seriously. It leads to no control on the sale of alcohol.

I want to turn to nightclubs and theatre licences. This is a complicated area and I am not sure tackling them as this legislation proposes is the way to go. They need much more consideration and thought. Citizens have the right to go to nightclubs, leave at a reasonable hour and go to a fast-food outlet without the fear of being assaulted. This is where personal responsibility plays a role. This is a law and order issue. It is a citizen's right to socialise in a safe and happy environment inside and outside clubs. Sequential closing is working quite well and I am slightly concerned we are moving backwards. Speaking to a number of people, particularly in cities where there is a large number of clubs, sequential closing has worked by moving people around the city at different times.

I wonder about Sunday closing times. We live in a very different time. Why we are making an adjustment on Sunday night closure is beyond me. It may not need to be carried out. I would like to see a much more detailed study on nightclub and theatre licences. There has been a proliferation of theatre licences and this has caused some concern. Some operators trade for approximately 31 hours per week and open only late at night until the early hours of the morning. Some of the recommendations in this Bill will see their opening hours reduced from 31 to 23 hours, which will probably make them unviable. I would like to see a particular study on this area.

I welcome the proposals to tackle public disorder, such as granting the Garda power to seize alcohol from people who appear to be under age or when there is a reasonable fear of public disorder. However, I believe we can go further in empowering the Garda to combat public disorder. The Local Government Act 2001 gives local authorities the power to pass by-laws outlawing the consumption of alcohol in public places. There is a strong argument for implementing this on a nationwide basis and making the enactment of these by-laws compulsory. As a member of New Ross Town Council and a former member of Wexford County Council, the difficulty with the planning laws is that we have had a staggered arrangement on opening hours for takeaways. Somebody is granted planning permission with a closing time of 9 p.m. while somebody else has a closing time of 11 p.m. but because another takeaway has been in existence for longer, it can trade until 2 a.m., 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. We should examine this on a nationwide basis and consider introducing it through our town councils.

I am also chairman of the JFK Dunbrody festival in New Ross. We run a festival every year and this is its eighth year. We run an alcohol-free concert area policed by the Garda, volunteers and committee members such as me. It has been a major success story. While we implement the by-laws fairly rigorously during these events, we allow the occasional drink to be taken where tables and chairs are put in front of a pub. However, we absolutely clamp down on young or older people carrying a glass or a can along the streets. That is something we have seen much more of on the streets of our towns throughout the country. I welcome this aspect of the Bill.

Education is one of the areas in which we have to tackle this culture of alcohol abuse. Disposable income is one of the reasons for it. Young people I talk to all seem to have a job and when going out for a night, they have €100 to €150 with them. With no shortage of money, they can all afford the five drinks they would have on average, or in many cases much more. Education is one of the most important aspects and I would like to see a very dedicated and strong education programme put in place to try to tackle alcohol abuse.

One proposal which was common to almost all submissions given to the Government's alcohol advisory group, and which I support, was a call for the introduction of a national ID card. We have reached the point where a national ID card is the only workable solution to the problem of under age drinking. Although the vast majority of premises owners are extremely diligent in their duty not to serve minors, they are facing an uphill struggle at times to identify people who are under age. A national ID card system that is rigorously enforced will be one of the most effective weapons against under age drinking. If the Minister does not have sufficient time to introduce this measure before the implementation of this legislation, and I do not think he has, I would urge him to consider it in the context of the sale of alcohol Bill.

I commend the Minister on introducing this Bill and the speed with which he wishes to enact it. There will be strong support for the measures contained in the Bill. As I have outlined, I have concerns about some areas and I hope the Minister will take these concerns, and the concerns of other Members, into account when seeking to enact the Bill. The Bill is not a cure-all but is the start of a process of tackling the abuse of alcohol. That must be a welcome development.

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