Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister might remember, I rang her when this issue became a very hot issue in Galway. We had a good conversation about it and I really appreciate the fact that she came back to me very promptly. I was of the view from the beginning that looking for discretion is a bad policy in law and that the best way to sort out this is the way the Minister is doing it, by bringing in the legislation and having no uncertainty about what is going to happen. I say that on two grounds, the first being that I knew where the issue had stemmed from and knew the circumstances various people were trying to deal with, including An Garda Síochána, and knew the competing demands from different sections of society. The other reason is that it is untidy. I believe in discretion in some circumstances but I do not believe in a discretion where one person applies it one way and another applies it another way. I would like to think when people use discretion most reasonable people would have applied it the same way in the same circumstance. I welcome this prompt action by the Government to deal with this issue and bringing certainty to it.

I got this Bill only in the afternoon and was busy all day at committees. I take it on a very quick reading of it that basically, the area immediately abutting a licenced premises de facto becomes part of that premises and therefore alcohol can be served there in the normal way, subject to keeping the normal order a person would keep within his or her licenced premises. My understanding is that in Galway there is a general prohibition in by-laws on drinking in the street. I presume without changing the by-laws that these particular areas are now covered by the primary legislation which would trump any by-law made by the local authority. However, that issue needs to be clarified so we are absolutely clear. I have understood from the very beginning that statute law always trumps any by-law. That clarity may be supplied by the Minister in her reply. She might state that a council cannot now make a by-law making it illegal to drink when a person is served on what seems to me, based on a very quick perusal of this Bill, to have become de facto part of the licenced premises.

Any of us who have been in Government, including the previous speaker, will have had the experience where, in the morass of legislation in this field - there is a huge amount of it - some detail gets overlooked. These things happen, and even the most expert people can often find differences in the law and there can be arguments about interpretation and so on. It is difficult to foresee every problem but what is much more inexcusable is to not deal with a problem once it has arisen. I say fair play to the Minister, this issue has been dealt with expeditiously, will bring certainty to this issue and allow us to close this chapter of the book. It is a very minor ripple that has been dealt with expeditiously and we should not get overexcited about it because it is now solved, or will be once the Minister gets the Bill through the Houses.

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