Results 2,221-2,240 of 5,894 for speaker:James Lawless

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: Mr. Light is welcome. I allowed him to run over his time somewhat because I could see that there was a finite number of recommendations and it made sense to get through them all, rather than cutting him off halfway through them and that is fine. I now call Ms Graham from the National Transport Authority. She is very welcome to the committee and she may make her presentation now, please.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: I thank Ms Graham. That concludes our opening round of presentations on behalf of our stakeholders. I thank them all for their very interesting and thought-provoking presentations and submissions. I will now move to the members. The way we operate our business is that each member is allowed a seven-minute slot. That seven-minute slot includes both questions and answers. A member can...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: I thank the Senator and I notice that Ms Lawless has indicated her wish to contribute now, please.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: An Garda Síochána made a written submission, as did many other groups, and was invited to today or last week's hearing but declined to take up that invitation. We had expected An Garda Síochána up until recently as it had accepted the invitation but then changed its mind and did not subsequently come in. That is An Garda Síochána's prerogative but we have its...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: Yes, absolutely. I would have expected its representatives to attend but it declined the invitation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: I think the witnesses. On the comment on retail and bar workers, during Covid for the first time people were put in a potential conflict. People were asked whether they were wearing masks and so forth. We all understood that was necessary at the time. A particular dynamic was introduced to the equation. I was aware of many unpleasant incidents that arose during that period. The point is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: The workers’ rights question will probably go to Mandate. I want to broaden out the rest of the responses.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: I think it is either New Zealand or Australia that has a state-sponsored Hello Sunday Morning programme, for example, which encourages people and assists them in their sobriety journey. There are some initiatives here, but I am not sure that they have status of an authority. The RSA would be a good comparison. That is quite a useful suggestion.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: We are talking about extending licensing hours and extending them across a variety of activities. However, we appear to be coupling these two things and I am not sure if this is in the legislation or the model or whether it is practice. We seem to be saying that to have a late hours theatre or late hours cinema or dance hall it must be inextricably linked to the provision of alcohol. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: I will call Ms. Leonard and then will go to Dr. Reynolds. Even though we are on the seven minute mark, I want to allow members to respond.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: It is good to keep the discussion going.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: I will let Dr. Reynolds in on this briefly as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: I am going to go to the next speaker and just to give an indication to the room, Senator Vincent P. Martin is next, followed by Senator Robbie Gallagher and Deputy Martin Kenny.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: I thank the Chairperson. His last question raised a very fair point. Senator Warfield made the same point earlier. We will take Dr. Gilheany first. If anyone else has something to say, I ask them to please catch my eye or raise their hand as we go on.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: The Public Health (Alcohol) Act and the new legislation appear to be diverging and moving in different directions. There is a consistency issue there. Senator Gallagher is joining us online. He has been following proceedings from his office. I welcome him to the floor.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: Thank you Senator. Who would like to respond?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: Thank you. Deputy Martin Kenny is next.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: This is per annum.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: Our final speaker for this engagement is Deputy Danny Healy-Rae. I will have a few questions of my own after that which I have been noting as we have gone along.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

James Lawless: Thank you, Deputy.