Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The issues around this all stem from Covid and the difficulties we had for the two years when the country was closed down. It was a terrible situation for the licensed trade, the tourism industry and people involved in businesses, particularly in our tourist areas, but also in towns and villages across the whole country. They found they had no way of making an income because of the restrictions that were put in place. We are here now to extend this particular arrangement that has been put in place. That is welcome and we certainly need to do it. However, I agree with Deputy Howlin that it is time we recognised that the arrangement has worked and that we need to put something permanent in place to ensure it can work into the future.

I have come across many people who have enjoyed the loveliest of sunny evenings sitting outside in towns and villages throughout the country, thinking they were in Spain or some Mediterranean area because they had an electric sun, as it were, over them keeping them warm. The reality is it has worked. It has been a revelation that it can work and can be put in place. However, there are issues and problems with it. In some cases, footpaths have been made narrower and people with disabilities have not been able to pass. There have been issues with parking in towns and many other things. They need to be worked out. All of these things need to be done in collaboration and co-operation with the local authorities, local businesses and local communities, who have often found there are problems.

There are issues around the licensing laws, trading hours, the consumption of alcohol in particular, and all that goes with it. The consumption of alcohol has a negative side to it that we too often see. Indeed, there is a video going around at the moment, recorded in Dublin Airport, that would certainly demonstrate that. It can have a very negative side. We are encouraging people to go back and live in the town centres and to use the space over shops as living accommodation. If that is the case, we must ensure town centres are not places where people are exposed to the worst elements of drunken behaviour that we often see in some of our towns, especially at the weekends. There are issues that need to be dealt with there.

As the tourism industry tries to rebuild and grow again, there is an issue I have come across in a number of areas. It is something on which the Government needs to reflect and think about how to resolve. Many of our hotel rooms have been taken up by people from Ukraine. That is welcome and needs to happen. The people need somewhere to go. However, in many towns that are depending on tourism over the summer, there is nowhere for tourists to stay or go. That is a problem that needs to be examined and for which a solution needs to be worked out. The Ukrainian crisis has thrown up many problems and we cannot ignore them. I think there is a tendency to solve the problem that is in front of us and to ignore the others because there is a feeling there is too much to do. There are knock-on effects to all of these things. Covid has had a huge knock-on effect on the entire tourism industry and on our entire community.

Covid has also changed our culture. More and more people are going to the off-licence now, bringing drink home with them and having a party in the house or the garden or whatever rather than actually going to the pub as they used to in the past. I think that change in culture and in how we do things will be with us for quite some time. The Irish pub is unique. I do not think I have been in any city or town around the world where there are pubs from different countries in the same way there are Irish pubs. If you are in any large town in Europe, there will be an Irish pub, or perhaps two, three or four of them. You will not find a Welsh pub, a Spanish pub or any other in such towns. There is a uniqueness about the culture of the Irish pub as being that intimate place that people go to to enjoy a drink, the chat, the music and the atmosphere that is created within the pub. If that is something that we can export, we need to get it right at home as well.

I have no problem supporting the extension of this provision. Indeed, I welcome it. We need to ensure we find a way of putting it in place on a long-term and more permanent basis. When we are doing that, we need to make sure we are doing it right. I take Deputy Howlin's point that we need to do it as soon as possible. However, I also think we should not rush it. We should do it right. We must ensure we do not do something we will regret and that will cause unforeseen consequences in the future. Having said that, now is the time for getting our heads together, to start putting the plans in place to do that and to make it happen as soon as possible.

See this speech in context