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[quote:2sa2yoig]The issues to be examined by the Advisory Group include below unit-cost selling, special promotions, special exemption orders which permit longer opening hours and the effectiveness of existing sanctions.[/quote:2sa2yoig]

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I can see the fit recommendation, reduce opening times, and punish everyone rather than the establishments encourage public disorder

Do they really think considering these measures will work...they have to be kidding themselves if they think raising prizes due to repeal of low cost selling will stop kids buying alcohol. if i had a tenner and was 15 id buy whatever i could and as much as possible if my objective was to get hammered. probably the choice would be some skank cider(sorry cider drinkers) or revolting cheap vodka. no one is going to choose hte nicely prized hefe at 2bills a pop. a bottle of wine would also fit the bill. these kids sre drinking to get pissed and we will all bare the brunt of the "findings" of this report. we all know who is lobbying this re-think and it makes me sick to see just because profits are falling immediate action is required.
on newstalk yeasterday they talked about gin drinking in britain in the 1700-1800's and how with taxation and prize hikes in grain led to an increase in gin prizes and peoples loyalty as a result shifted to porters and ales ..it didn't stop them boozing. if we are stuck paying more for our beer in stores we dont mind but itll just push the kids with that tenner down a different route - either drinking harder more dangerous drinks or heading down a more drug lined route....
and to say it is irrisponsible to drink at home....jesus it makes me mad to hear them trot that one out. at least we are supervised in pubs and clubs.....rubbish. a few cans at home with friends will lead to no trouble compared with bumping into a drunkin tool at the nitelink and himself and his mates deciding they want a go at you.
i could rant on but i wont. gonna have a cold bath....and to top it off i hear on the radio ..no pay increase for mise.

The very fact that the term “as a matter of urgency” was used, tells us exactly what to expect. The minister wants a quick fix to a problem which is deeply rooted in our culture.

So a bunch of people will sit around and talk about how bad binge drinking is and how something has to be done and soon. They will meet, waste some time and then tell the minister exactly what he wants to hear, which is justification for a hike in tax on alcohol and permission to tell us that it's for our own good, despite the fact that, if you look at the figures, it is obvious that it doesn't actually do anything to curb binge drinking. They may also recommend a ban on below cost selling of alcohol (Dutch gold costing several cent more a can, that'll solve the problem) and some kind of change in the way special licences are issued, in the name of public order (“Shur, if ye send people home earlier and they won't be as drunk and then they won't get into fights”).

In other words they will say that we need to do the same crap that has failed to have any impact on the issue up to now. But hey, 82nd time's the charm, right?

Now, they tell us there has been a 35% increase in the number of off-licences from 2003 to 2005. Shocking. Won't someone please think of the children! Have they looked at the alcohol consumption figures too? Turns out that our per capita alcohol consumption is almost exactly the same as it was in 2003, despite this shocking sounding, but ultimately meaningless, statistic.

Here's a question; if the number of offies has gone up, has the number of pubs gone down? Unless new licences are being issued, which I seriously doubt, the rise in offies must have resulted in the extinction of the exact same number of pubs and, due to the way Irish licensing law works, once you have changed a pub licence to an offie licence, you can't change it back.

And what is the relevance of the number of offies anyway? Do they think people are drinking at home and then going into town, to pick a fight outside Abrakebabra, or is it possible the violent drunks are just after slamming down a few aftershocks in a pub, just before the legally mandated kick out time?

Oh dear...

I wonder what the thought processes were here?

Well restriction of opening hours, highly anti-competitive licensing laws, byzantine regulatory systems, punitive taxes and pricing orders have all failed spectacularly to deal with the problem of binge drinking and anti-social behaviour. So how shall we address the problem?

I know <!-- s:idea: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_idea.gif" alt="" title="Idea" /><!-- s:idea: --> lets have more of the above! That should do the trick and in no way punish the vast majority of responsible drinkers.

I would imagine every petrol station and corner shop that sells wine has been factored into that 'shocking' statistic of a 35% increase.

The day all these "binge drinkers" realise there's alcohol in wine this country will fold!
Obviously I'm biased, but it's shocking the raw deal that beer gets compared to wine. €300 and you can sell wine in your shop. What's that? Your shop is laid out in such a way that it's impossible to segregate off the off-licence section? No problem, here's an early morning licence, so you can serve your wine at 8am.