Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Nightlife in our city is under massive threat and hundreds of nightclubs have closed in the past two decades. This does not just impact our night-time tourist offering but also affects the cultural life we have in the city as a place for young people to go where they feel they belong in a vibrant European city. When people speak about what is on offer in Dublin, they speak about blandness and sameness. There are places people go to pay for overpriced cocktails and put photos on Instagram. We need to bring the vibrancy, rawness and diversity back to the club nights we used to have.

Late licences cost venues more than €400 a night. This can stack up for some venues. This fee is staggering when compared to the UK where it is €2,000 a year for an annual late licence fee. The UK has begun to take steps on this, employing night tsars in big cities such as London, Manchester and Liverpool. It is worth £66 billion per year. Imagine the benefits we could reap, particularly in Dublin, if we focused on rethinking our night-time economy.

One of the areas we need to look at is mentorship of people who want to run club nights. We have mentorship in the Courts Service. Why do we not put it into local authorities? Why do we not have local employment offices mentor people who want to set up pop-up club nights? We need to think outside the box and support young people to bring vibrant and different club nights. It is not only about those that are there. We have to have pop-ups. They could contribute hugely. We must allow the vibrancy of a city that changes its tastes.

Building our night-time economy and diversifying the range of offerings would help to fill our streets with vibrancy and nurture the cultural and creative arts. I would hate to see a situation after we reform our licensing laws whereby we just stop at 2 a.m. or 2.30 a.m. In other European cities, people can find places after this time. There is no reason we cannot have a 24-hour club economy. Different people have different tastes. Not everybody works 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Not everybody works Monday to Friday. Different people want different offerings. Allowing people to have this vibrancy would be worthwhile. It would also benefit those living in the areas because it would offer employment opportunities for those working in the industry. We do not want our cities to become bland and lifeless.

We also need to allow for the expansion of cultural spaces such as galleries, theatres and exhibition spaces to offer alternatives outside of their core hours. Our urban areas are being dominated by investor-led development. Nightlife culture is being pushed out. We saw the Tivoli Theatre on Francis Street demolished.The people of the Liberties are still grieving the loss of this cultural hub - though I used to get some complaints about noise from it. There are no plans to fill the space with something cultural. At the moment a planning application is going through for steel gates to be put up at what should, or could, be a great public space in order to limit communal access to it.

The night-time economy task force highlighted that public transport usually stops at 11 p.m. or midnight and in some rural areas stops before 6 p.m. I echo the calls of other people to ensure we have a proper night-time public transport system. We are seeing a crisis in safety at the moment because of a lack of taxis and there needs to be a co-ordinated Government response to that lack of night-time transport to get people home.