Give us the Night

KevIRL

Was browsing around earlier and it seems like the Give us the Night guys are kicking off the campaign for better opening hours again. Fair play to them, something is definitely needed to be done to bring us in line with the rest of Europe

This from their website as to what its about.....

Our newsletters are not so frequent, however if you have been keeping an eye on www.giveusthenight.com you will be aware that the issue of nightclub licencing in Ireland is once again on the table, as Minister Brian Lenihan prepares to regulate legislation relating the sale of alcohol.


It is now our understanding that there are strong calls to bring back the times that nightclubs can open until, which could result in many clubs in Dublin for instance, having to stop serving alcohol at 2am, with doors closed at 2.30am. The reasoning, from a Garda perspective, is to reduce the amount of public order offences on the streets which they say is still a big problem, despite the fact that public order offences have dropped by 20% in 2007 compared to 2006.

It has also been brought to our knowledge that theatre licences for nightclubs may be effectively done away with, with nightclubs that opened until 3.30am in danger of being pegged back to 12.30am - which means they will only be able to open 'late' if they obtain a special exemption order.

This week we will be going to The Dáil to meet with The Green Party's spokesperson for Justice, Equality & Law Reform, Ciarán Cuffe TD. You may remember his response to the campaign prior to the election, which outlined his party's desire for more liberal licencing laws in Ireland; so we are hopeful that The Greens' stance remains the same and that they may be able to exercise some influence in the current process.


More information and news to follow soon,

Give Us The Night Team

www.giveusthenight.com

JJ

I almost forgot about this organisation. I signed up for the newsletter and forgot about it. I'm glad to see they're still alive and kicking.

garthv

Aye, I'd love to see these guys actually get somewhere but theyve been around for a fair amount of time now and as far as I can see...theyve gotten nowhere.
No offence meant! I would love to see them succeed in extending the licensing laws in this nanny state but its next to impossible.

GUTN

garthv wrote: »

Aye, I'd love to see these guys actually get somewhere but theyve been around for a fair amount of time now and as far as I can see...theyve gotten nowhere.
No offence meant! I would love to see them succeed in extending the licensing laws in this nanny state but its next to impossible.

Well, if you consider that a major update to the licencing laws hasn't taken place since the early part of last century, our three and a half years in operation as a group is a drop in the ocean!

When people say we have gotten nowhere it is perhaps true in that we have not changed the legislation; but you really need to familarise yourself with the licencing system in Ireland and how it is controlled, to know that there are no overnight successes for any lobby group involved in this ongoing process.

We don't have financial backing, we all have jobs and our own other interests; this is entirely independent, voluntary stuff.. and something that can only really be done on and off anyway, due to the fact that the laws relating to nightclubs are very low down the list of things to address for the government - hence ongoing focus on the subject being relatively small.

Anyway, we're still here, and always positive about the future. Things *will* change some day; there's no question about that. More politicians need to be made aware of the situation too, and this is not something we can do on our own. If you have a local TD, contact him/her and make your feelings clear - many of these people will not be too up to date with particular issues such as nightclub closing times etc. so they need to be told! This type of thing will make our job a lot easier too, especially coming up to a time where all these issues will be the subject of greater debate.

Toast

Last I heard the report on 24 drinking in the UK was that it made little difference to anti social behaviour apart from adding extra violence in the early morning. Not something you want legislators bringing up if you are pointing to the UK as an example.

garthv

GUTN wrote: »

Well, if you consider that a major update to the licencing laws hasn't taken place since the early part of last century, our three and a half years in operation as a group is a drop in the ocean!

When people say we have gotten nowhere it is perhaps true in that we have not changed the legislation; but you really need to familarise yourself with the licencing system in Ireland and how it is controlled, to know that there are no overnight successes for any lobby group involved in this ongoing process.

We don't have financial backing, we all have jobs and our own other interests; this is entirely independent, voluntary stuff.. and something that can only really be done on and off anyway, due to the fact that the laws relating to nightclubs are very low down the list of things to address for the government - hence ongoing focus on the subject being relatively small.

Anyway, we're still here, and always positive about the future. Things *will* change some day; there's no question about that. More politicians need to be made aware of the situation too, and this is not something we can do on our own. If you have a local TD, contact him/her and make your feelings clear - many of these people will not be too up to date with particular issues such as nightclub closing times etc. so they need to be told! This type of thing will make our job a lot easier too, especially coming up to a time where all these issues will be the subject of greater debate.

Don't get me wrong mate, I'm not critisizing what you guys do in any way! In fact Ive got a lot of respect for what you are trying to do. I sure as hell would love to see later licensing laws in this country.

I am very familiar with the licensing laws, working in bars for 5 years will do that to you, which is why I made my above statement. This country will need a good kick up the arse to make them change the licensing laws and the way they look at it is that if theres more time for us Irish to be out enjoying ourselves, the more they don't want it to happen!

GUTN

garthv wrote: »

Don't get me wrong mate, I'm not critisizing what you guys do in any way! In fact Ive got a lot of respect for what you are trying to do. I sure as hell would love to see later licensing laws in this country.

I am very familiar with the licensing laws, working in bars for 5 years will do that to you, which is why I made my above statement. This country will need a good kick up the arse to make them change the licensing laws and the way they look at it is that if theres more time for us Irish to be out enjoying ourselves, the more they don't want it to happen!

No worries, I know you weren't having a go, I guess I just wanted it to be known that this isn't something we can change straight away, or even bring about on our own for that matter. Some people have expected us to be able to get the legislation changed overnight, as if it's that easy! While we haven't done that, we have built a lot on where we were at the beginning, and are far more in tune with the situation at hand which helps us in our future dealings with the decision makers etc.

Thanks for your support in it, and the other people that have posted here. Will keep you all updated with what's happening anyway, cheers..

Toast

Have you any plans for fundraising to pay for public facing adverts on television and the like? A counterpoint to the governments own anti anti-social drinking iniative pointing out that treating its citizens as boozed up asses will probably generate that behaviour would be a good start. By the way here is that article I referenced above regards the UK.

GUTN

Toast wrote: »

Have you any plans for fundraising to pay for public facing adverts on television and the like? A counterpoint to the governments own anti anti-social drinking iniative pointing out that treating its citizens as boozed up asses will probably generate that behaviour would be a good start. By the way here is that article I referenced above regards the UK.

Thanks for that: I read that piece, it is pretty one sided but still some interesting parts.

We won't be doing TV ads, and aren't in a position as a group to have time to be able to raise funds of that amount.

The Irish Nightclub Association may be launching an initiative of their own soon though.