Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to second the Intoxicating Liquor (Amendment) Bill 2017. I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for giving the Bill a Second Stage reading. I thank Senator Billy Lawless and my fellow Independent colleagues for bringing the Bill forward in 2017.

The need to repeal the Good Friday alcohol ban is raised on a yearly basis to no avail, but I am very hopeful today. We know that Ireland's relationship with alcohol dates back to the Stone Age. Like many other countries, we have an ambivalent relationship with it. On the one hand, excessive drinking is a serious social and health problem. On the other hand, the pub, as a focus for drinking, socialising, entertaining and culture is an important part of our national identity. We therefore have a dual perception of alcohol as a problem to be managed and as a pleasure to be enjoyed. Our policy and legislative developments have reflected this ambiguity.

As legislators, we are tasked with balancing the rights of individuals to make their own lifestyle choices with the ethics of legitimate democratic intervention in public health by the State. In supporting this Bill, I believe that legislation to support our pub and tourism sector and legislation to tackle alcohol-related harm are not mutually exclusive. By supporting one, we are not automatically diminishing the other. Lifting the ban on public houses being opened and alcohol being sold on Good Friday does not interfere with the Government's policies and legislation to reduce the harm that excessive use of alcohol creates. As we speak, the Government's Public Health (Alcohol) Bill is going through the Oireachtas. Notwithstanding some contentious areas, we must be resolved on it. It is one of the most progressive pieces of legislation in Europe in the way that it tackles pricing, labelling, marketing and availability. I supported this Bill when it was in the Seanad, but I am not conflicted in supporting today's Bill either.

Neither is my support for this Bill an attack on the practices and traditions of the church. As a nation, we have a strong history of teetotalism, "the pledge" and the temperance movement. Traditions of abstinence on certain church holidays, such as Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, have been an important part of our social and religious history. These practices are now in relative decline and our laws must be updated to reflect that. I am not for one moment undermining the validity or importance of fast and abstinence for those who wish to practice it, but I am deeply conscious of the growing secularisation and multi-religious nature of Irish society, the increasing separation of church and State and our obligations as legislators to meet the needs of an evolving society.

I am not here today to promote the drinks industry. It can do a good job of that itself. I am here to promote tourism, the Irish public house and the citizen's right to choose without the interference of the State. To say that this legislation is overdue is an understatement. The Licensed Vintners Association, representing Dublin publicans, and the Vintners Federation of Ireland have been campaigning on this issue for years and I applaud them for their patience, which I hope will be rewarded.

I read recently that there are now Irish pubs in over 40 countries and that the Irish pub is a highly successfully global commodity, a gold mine for owners all over the world trading on the Irish reputation for hospitality, culture and good craic. Their success is not just due to the stout and whiskey for which Ireland is also renowned, but to their unique Irish characteristics. The authentic Irish pub, the ones in this country, are honeypots for tourists and having them closed on Good Friday makes no moral or commercial sense. In fact, there is a curious irony in the fact that one could drink in an Irish pub anywhere in the world on Good Friday except for Ireland. Irish pubs are an intrinsic part of our national heritage. They are much more than a place to purchase alcohol.Pubs are important third spaces, places which are not home and not work, which are inherently democratic, ubiquitous and near at hand. Pubs are our local and we frequent them in patterns, some people are regulars others occasional visitors, but everyone is welcome.

Pubs have been described as an icon of the everyday where people can meet, relax and enjoy as much political engagement as we do here, a place where everything and anything is discussed. Pubs are an intrinsic part of our social capital, they are often the centre of community and village life and are a vital part of our tourism offering. Having them closed on Good Friday creates confusion for tourists and does little to enhance public health.

Section 10 of the Intoxicating Liquor Act 1962 has already been successfully challenged in court in Limerick in 2010 albeit in very specific and quite accidental circumstances. Rock on Munster. In his judgment, Judge Tom O’Donnell declared that it would be somewhat absurd if pubs lost out on business from the Munster rugby event. I believe that it is now equally absurd that thousands of pubs are losing out on business on one of the busiest tourism weekends of the year.

I welcome this Bill as a solid and conclusive solution to what has only previously been addressed by court challenges and the creation of piecemeal ad hocsolutions. I look forward to the passing of the Bill and to the sale of alcohol in the normal way on Good Friday, 2018. The challenge for us as legislators is to balance the benefits of social drinking with the costs of excessive and addictive drinking. To say "It is about time" is almost an understatement as the Licensed Vintners Association representing Dublin publicans and the Vintners Federation of Ireland have been campaigning on this issue for years. The response by the Oireachtas has been ad hocand piecemeal and the result is unsurprisingly confusing.

Having led a trade union and been president of a union, I am acutely aware that by opening pubs on Good Friday we are creating an extra day's work but it is not an extra day's work because Good Friday is not a bank holiday. I have no doubt that my colleagues in the trade union movement will address the issue of any additional pay that workers in pubs would be entitled to -----