Results 3,701-3,720 of 18,728 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The Intoxicating Liquor Act 1988 created a special restaurant licence. It may be obtained from the Revenue Commissioners on foot of a Circuit Court certificate and on payment of a fee of €3,805. Despite reforms in the Intoxicating Liquor Act 2000, many unreasonable and discriminatory restrictions still apply to the special restaurant licence. The so-called declaratory procedure, whereby a...

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: It has been suggested recently that the vintners' organisations have themselves proposed the reform of restaurant licence rules as an alternative to the café bar licence. I welcome their support, but I am quite sure that support would not have been voiced were it not for the decision to hold a public consultation on the café bar licence.

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I defy anyone to contradict that. The so-called extinguishment requirement is the current rule whereby an applicant for a new licence for a public house or for an off-licence premises must present the court with evidence that an existing licensee has agreed to extinguish a current licence. I had intended to retain this provision, which many regard as restrictive and anti-competitive, as part...

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: We have had the slightly sad spectacle of people saying that alcopops should be banned. What do they mean by that? Should a vodka and orange or Bacardi and Coke not be available?

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Should Baileys Irish cream or anything that sweetens alcohol be banned? I would like to understand the proposition better. Likewise, it has been proposed that alcohol related sponsorship should be prohibited at all sporting events. Are we to allow Liverpool to appear on our television screens with Carlsberg emblazoned on their chests or say that no Irish team can display such sponsorship? Are...

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Deputy Jim O'Keeffe is the person who came up with this.

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: The more I listen to Deputy Jim O'Keeffe's ponderous vacuity, I realise that none of the thoughts he expressed this evening has been thought through for one minute. None of the implications has been thought through, which was not the case with the intoxicating liquor commission which sat for a number of years.

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I wish it to be very clear to the House that we face in Ireland a number of problems, one of which is the abuse of alcohol by young people. One of the ways in which we must respond is to provide social outlet choices of the kind referred to by Deputy Jim O'Keeffe and other contributors which do not involve the consumption of alcohol.

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: It is an accepted point of view. However, those people who go drinking should be given the choice to eat and drink in moderation rather than have to go to exclusively drink orientated places which have a monopoly on the sale of spirits and beer. Young people in Ireland deserve the choice and I make no apology for saying I will do my best to bring it to them. Anyone who opposes choice with a...

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: They said rural pubs were under threat and asked me what I proposed to do to safeguard the economic well-being of rural publicans in this statute. One cannot have it both ways. Irish society is moving on and changing and it has problems. The alcohol problem derives in large measure from a superabundance of resources in the hands of a young generation in their late teens and early 20s around...

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: While we live in a society which has a number of problems——

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Deputy Jim O'Keeffe had his opportunity to speak. The House has a duty to legislate to codify the licensing laws.

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: No one has a problem with that. The House is also obliged to provide for a modern generation of young Irish people the opportunities to which they are entitled. The House has an obligation to put before those people a real choice. They should not have to choose between beer and food as is currently the case. We have the opportunity to adopt a more continental approach, to be brave and to put...

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: It is not an answer to say we should ban all sports-related sponsorship by alcohol producers, it is, rather, impractical and foolish. It would be impossible to achieve on an international level and would put Irish sport at a very serious disadvantage.

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: We must be practical and honest.

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I believe most emphatically that the consumption of alcohol with food is part, though, I concede, not the entirety, of the solution. As long as we surrender to vested interests to separate the consumption of Irish produced alcohol, be it spirits or otherwise, from food and withdraw from most people in Ireland the opportunity to combine the two, we must take moral responsibility for the...

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: Posturing, huffing, puffing——

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: ——and presenting naked advocacy of vested interests as a concern for public health does no credit to the people who moved tonight's motion. The record shows that when Gordon Holmes produced the commission's report there was not a squeak from Fine Gael. The party's participants in chat shows postured as advocates of modernisation and reform only to engage——

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: ——in the greatest regression away from Civil War politics, with Fine Gael joining the Fianna Fáil backbenchers who have difficulties with all of this tonight.

Liquor Licensing Laws: Motion. (14 Jun 2005)

Michael McDowell: I was glad to go to a democratically elected group of people and discuss the matter with them. I am always happy to do that.