"What would be the best option"? Very difficult to answer of course but here is what I think.
Binge drinking is socially irresponsible. We all know this. In the comfort of your home you can binge all you want. It becomes a problem when you step outside and inflict your presence and state of mind on others.
Those that do binge and find themselves foolishly drunk on the streets give all drinkers a bad name. The level of drunkeness can range from just the pure embarrassing to the most seriously violent.
So how to combat it? My suggestion is to build 'social hubs' out of the city centre. For Dublin, build six to start with in various suburbs. Consider these hubs to be shopping centre like areas with sections for restaurants, bars, clubs, bowling halls and pool/snooker halls to cater for all tastes. With something for everyone this hub takes the strain off the city centre in many regards. Less people on the street, less lines of people waiting for food and taxis, less potential for trouble, less policing required.
Of course won't the problems of binge drinking be simply pushed away from the city centre? Yes, but these problems will become much more diluted. The problems arise originally when the whole city finds themselves on the street at the same time in the early hours. Some people have had a good night and are on their way home. Others have had a bad night and are determined to give someone a bad night too. Binge drinking occurs because people have only a finite amount of time in which to drink and they do as much as possible before closing time. Come closing time, everyone spills onto the street.
Back to the idea of the 'social hub'. This hub can be organised and managed by a central office, a bit like a management company. It can stagger the closing time of the various independent establishments within its supervision. With people going home at different times this alleviates immediate social tension while the taxis and buses that service the hub have more time to get people to and from home without long queues developing.
With one 24 hour bar/club at each hub this would have the result of attracting the hard core drinkers and also the real messy Saturday night punters, the professional binge drinkers, and the ones you don't even make eye contact with while walking down the street. This bar would require extra policing of course, but at least the Gardai are in the right place at the right time.
With somewhere for the heavy drinkers to continue their revelry the streets have lost their most potentially dangerous and threatening element and so can be more easily enjoyed by those who are simply out for a good time, the couples, the families, the tourists, the groups of friends, and the movers and shakers.
To build such hubs sounds crazy. Who would finance it? Who would go? Why would they go? Well, as Dublin grows so must its infrastuture and the sophistication of its urban planning. In the future this will surely centre around organised urban centres such as those in Tallaght and the one planned for Swords (there are others no doubt in the pipeline).
Develop these 'social hubs' into the National Development Plan; open the pub license market for people wanting to open bars and clubs in these hubs; reduce tax on alcohol to promote competition in the market (people wouldn't neck as much alcohol at home before going out if it were cheap to buy in the bar); and promote a sense of community within each urban centre. People would soon forget the city centre problems, out for a night but just 15 minutes from home.
That's how I see it. Like I said though, there's no easy solution.
On a personal note I'd like to suggest an independant microbrewery for each hub, to further promote community spirit!
.
" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->
" title="Rolling Eyes" /><!-- s:roll: --> 
