TOPIC:

Did they not try to liberalise drinking hours under McDoughal some years ago? Allowing late bars to serve beyond 3am? Garda Siochana said the increase in public unrest mirrored the increase in opening times. This comment was backed up by the severe over crowding at A+E departments around most major towns too.
When it comes to boozin we're just a bunch of......
Myself included. <!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt="" title="Rolling Eyes" /><!-- s:roll: -->

Thommo, speak for yourself. I'm quite capable of behaving myself with alcohol regardless of when closing time is.

&amp;quot;Thommo&amp;quot;:gmwp2vto wrote: Did they not try to liberalise drinking hours under McDoughal some years ago? Allowing late bars to serve beyond 3am? Garda Siochana said the increase in public unrest mirrored the increase in opening times. This comment was backed up by the severe over crowding at A+E departments around most major towns too.
When it comes to boozin we're just a bunch of......
Myself included. <!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt="" title="Rolling Eyes" /><!-- s:roll: -->[/quote:gmwp2vto]

Do you have any figures for this?
You hear a lot of anecdotal stuff about this sort of thing and police forces certainly aren't above spinning things for their own agenda or that of a senior member of the force, so I like to see hard data.

&amp;quot;Thommo&amp;quot;:3khi2h6b wrote: Did they not try to liberalise drinking hours under McDoughal some years ago? Allowing late bars to serve beyond 3am? Garda Siochana said the increase in public unrest mirrored the increase in opening times. This comment was backed up by the severe over crowding at A+E departments around most major towns too.
When it comes to boozin we're just a bunch of......
Myself included. <!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt="" title="Rolling Eyes" /><!-- s:roll: -->[/quote:3khi2h6b]

Let's just ban alcohol altogether then, fuck it.

The irony is that any bar can stay open later if they pay the state €410 per night for a Special Exemption Order, plus legal fees to a solicitor.

Inevitably the punter pays this.

I respect your view Séan, and I said up front mine was an unpopular view, but I guess I take the line that even sensible moderate drinkers like the members of Beoir would be better off having to stop at 11pm. Like you say we are quite capable of deciding to leave early ourselves, but we sometimes don't, and on those occasions legal compulsion would keep us on the straight and narrow.

I am not trying to win any converts here and I know I'm likely to.