Brendan Ryan (Labour)

There are many aspects of the Bill with which I have no difficulty because many of them are concerned with making the present law enforceable and, therefore, worth implementing. It came as a shock to us all to discover that a garda out of uniform could not observe activities in a pub to see whether people under age were being served. It was also a shock for me to discover how difficult it was to persuade the Garda that certain pubs were serving people under age. I made a speech in the House late one Thursday afternoon, which featured in "Oireachtas Report" at midnight. I said my 17 year old daughter had told me she would not dream of attending a nightclub in Cork because it was full of junior certificate students. I said I assumed that the members of the Garda Síochána who also had teenage children knew the same thing. At 8.55 a.m. the following morning I got a telephone call from a senior member of the force who told me I was giving out about the Garda. I was not. I was giving out about the lack of enforcement of the law and assumed the Garda knew what I knew. The club in question, with other nightclubs in the area, was raided the following Saturday and subsequently closed. My children never forgave me because they said it became impossible for under age teenagers to attend nightclubs.

When my 23 year old daughter was 16 years of age, she told me of another nightclub serving people under age. It has now been closed for a month but I knew for seven years that it was a well known location for serving teenagers under age. Anybody with teenage children who talks to them could provide any member of the Garda Síochána with a list of the premises concerned, which varies from time to time. There is an enforcement issue, separate from Senator Ulick Burke's concern about resources. I know the Garda Síochána is under pressure and probably has a list of priorities. However, if it rigorously and consistently enforces the law on under age drinking, it will begin to deal with a number of the other problems in this area, especially if we, as legislators, support this approach.

Like other Members, I have been asked to sign a pledge to undertake that I will not be photographed in public with a drink in my hand. That is an invitation to the tabloid press to catch us out. I do not have to remind the Minister of the problems associated with attending bars under various circumstances. I have refused to sign the pledge because it is ridiculous. I will not be caught with a sucker punch because I happen to have a glass in my hand when somebody takes a photograph.

I am not madly keen on the prohibition on children. I spend as much of my summer as I can in the Corca Dhuibhne gaeltacht and for most of those who holiday in the area there is nowhere to go but the public house after 8 p.m. The only other places available are enormously expensive restaurants. The place where everybody on a camping site or in a holiday home goes at night if they want to stay out after 8 p.m. or until 11 p.m. is the pub. I can see what is involved and I can understand what the Minister must consider, but we should think this measure through. I am one of those who agrees with the Minister's willingness to be flexible on the 9 p.m. limit. As he said, the time varies.