John Dardis (Progressive Democrats)

This is relevant to the discussion we had on section 10 in regard to special exemption orders and closing hours. Again, thinking about rural Ireland, it struck me that the argument as to whether closing time should be 10.30 p.m. or 11.30 p.m. was somewhat academic, particularly at weekends. If one holidays in the west of Ireland, on the route from Dublin to, say Newport, County Mayo, there is not a weekend that one cannot find licensed premises open until very late in the evening. There are festivals to celebrate everything, including grasshoppers, trout and whatever else happens to be the local delicacy. I am sure a person could, without difficulty, spend the summer months visiting licensed premises open until the early hours of the morning.

In this respect, the debate is somewhat unreal, especially in the context of rural Ireland. While I take it local authorities and the Garda can have a view on this, it appears that a liberal view is taken of what constitutes a function or an event in terms of securing an exemption. By this I do not mean dinner dances or club functions but local festivals. I do not say they are a bad thing because the degree of rioting in the streets, about which Senator Norris is concerned, is minimal.

On the question of 11.30 p.m. or 12.30 a.m. closings, there is a certain veracity in the traditional view in the west that pubs close sometime in November. It appears that each year every crossroads can avail of exemption orders between May and October. Is this subverting the intention regarding closing hours?