Should pub hours be extended?

ThomasJ85

Anyone here not think that late bars and night clubs closing hours should be extended? Maybe till 5? I think a lot of people think that Irelands drinking problems are related to drinking too much, but I've travelled to Germany and places, and people seem to drink as much as we do, yet they behave a lot better (i.e. no fighting on the street) etc. I think extending pub hours might make people feel they don't need to rush to the bar to try and drink as much as possible before closing time. People might feel more relaxed and less likely pissed off that they have to go home early.

What do yeah think? Has this been discussed previously on the forum?

seamonkey92

Yes

ThomasJ85

Yes as in you agree with me? Or yes, this has been discussed previously?

Dr Turk Turkelton

seamonkey92 wrote: »

Yes

I concur.

drdidlittle

Stop every sweet shop selling drink. Extend pub hours and let restaurants sell drink after food has stopped serving.

rubadub

ThomasJ85 wrote: »

Has this been discussed previously on the forum?

It has been in other forums alright.

I would like to see it 24hours, give them the option to open & close whenever they want, like most other retailers are free to do. The dail bar gets to stay open late, but they seemingly are blind to the fact the rest of the country do not all work 9-5 either.

Closing time fuels the "last round" culture, so not only are people spilling out onto the street at the same time, they have another rake of booze just gone into their system yet to take effect. When people are drunk they can down spirits like water. I have always found it bizarre how so many people switch to spirits at the end of the night, this thing of "I feel full, I couldn't handle another pint", FFS, you are feeling full since your system is still chocked full of liquid -beer, yet to take effect. It'd be like someone scoffing a rake of food and then downing pure vegetable oil just to get some more calories in.

When abroad in resorts like santa ponza you see gangs drinking far more than usual, but there is no real last round culture.

The 10pm offie thing is more ridiculous though, I saw a couple in their mid 30's in tesco buying their dinner and a single bottle of wine and having to skip ahead to be in before 10pm. I had only just finished work myself.

Well it was to combat binge drinking, which is drinking a lot in a short amount of time. So they made time even shorter. So people are drinking more in an even shorter amount of time, coming out standing outside the club for another hour were fights then break out etc....

Instead of letting people leave in their own time when they are tired and want to bed and dont have time for fighting etc ...

1huge1

Yes I believe it should be extended. Especially going my my experience drinking in pubs on the continent.

It would severely curb our binge drinking culture with everyone trying to drink as much as possible (and as fast as possible) before closing time. Not to mention, everyone being shoved onto the street at the one time which can lead to fights, over stretching of services etc.

Whereas if you let the pubs choose their own hours (lets say 5am like the pub I used to work in in Austria), not everyone is going to stay that late at all and people will generally leave on their own time.

GLaDOS

I would like to see pub times extended, though I'm usually wrecked by about 2 am anyway

Take more issue with off sales being cut off at 10.

ThomasJ85

Great to see so many agreeing with me here. Do you think it is possible to get the law changed to fix this issue? Maybe start a petition?

coylemj

The biggest problem with your proposal is that there are lots of people who live near pubs and they don't want people on the streets singing and puking their guts up at 3 a.m. Lobby your T.D. all you like to have the law amended but there will be far more residents against it than drinkers in favour.

The trouble in Ireland is that the power of the publicans' lobby (they used to be well represented in the Dail) was such that there was hardly any new licences issued in recent years despite increases in the population in many parts of the country. The result is that you now have a lot of big superpubs in the suburbs catering to large numbers of people while there are too many pubs in small towns and a lot of them are closing. Those suburban pubs are surrounded by houses who would seriously resist any suggestion that licensing hours be extended.

ThomasJ85

Alright, but could you not just change the law for pubs based in mixed use areas, as in city centres of Cork, Limerick and Galway, etc.?

rubadub

ScienceNerd wrote: »

I would like to see pub times extended, though I'm usually wrecked by about 2 am anyway

But you are wrecked by 2 since you are probably heading out at a time revolving around the opening hours. I often would head to a friends and start at midnight, since that's when we would finish work.

coylemj wrote: »

The biggest problem with your proposal is that there are lots of people who live near pubs and they don't want people on the streets singing and puking their guts up at 3 a.m. Lobby your T.D. all you like to have the law amended but there will be far more residents against it than drinkers in favour.

I live in an area where you get passers by from pubs, I would favour it. The hope/expectation is they will not be puking their guts up at 3am as there will have been none of this last round nonsese which I think is the main cause of this. In foreign holiday resorts I remember going home quietly, and others, I was drinking water before leaving the pub and going home, not fecking vodka!

ThomasJ85 wrote: »

Alright, but could you not just change the law for pubs based in mixed use areas, as in city centres of Cork, Limerick and Galway, etc.?

Whats "mixed use", non-residential?

That could be an idea, they have "early houses" in city centres, well dublin anyway, not sure of others, so why not "late houses".

But I still think let them open & close when they want. I have heard some saying no before saying its unfair on the workers, many seem to think pubs are actually forced to be open during opening hours. Many used to close early on thursdays in my area when they could have been open till 12.30. Its simple supply & demand that will see them open later. You see a string of pubs all half empty during the afternoon, if it was 24hour I think they would all benefit, one would be open early, they would get known to be the late one or not, just like pharmacies or newsagents, people will travel.

Losty Dublin

When the 2008 act came in, those in favour of curtailing hours had a lot of research behind them to show that drink caused harm, anti social behaviour, blah di blah and all of that. All the vintners had was the threat of lost jobs, which was valid but that was it. At the time, part of the draconian nature of the act was to do with scaling back hours and to eliminate some of the loopholes issued in readiness for a more radical overhaul of hours, including a more defined night club status and clarification in relation to exemptions, hours and other less well known licences. For example, Dublin had 33 theatre licences in activation at the time; about 2 licences to every bona fide theatre in the city. The early house was also done away bar for those pubs who held one at the time

The drink/pub industry knew there was an improvement on the way and not wishing to mess things up they did very little to put forward against it all and it was passed with little in the way of a fight from Vintners groups. There was a campaign group called Give Us The Night who lobbied for late opening but not being venue led, it was seen as little more than kids wanting to party so it faded away quickly enough

I gather that the new licencing bill was actually drafted in 2008 with a view to being introduced in and around 2009. Alas, the banking crisis took hold and the Dept of Finance were understandably sidetracked and hasn't been seen since. I remain unconvinced that the current government will move to reform hours within it's lifespan.

minidazzler

Bars should be allowed to serve whenever the hell they want and are financially viable to do so. More specifically city center bars should be allowed to at very least apply for an all night licence, or a specific late licence where it's really late, not til 2 am.

If nothing else, because happy relaxed people who are drunk but not bollixed tip better :pac:

Ipro

Has anyone noticed the clubs seem in cork seem to stop serving at 2am , opposed to 2.30am in Dublin ?

In particular "the brog" & "crane lane"

ciaran76

I used to love that when I lived in Prague. I didnt have to worry about times bar closed. Now bars in residential areas did close but I could walk into the city in 10 mins and had numerous bars that opened untill 6/7am.

I did notice though I would go out much later then here. When friends came over to Prague they be dying to get out early thinking bars going to close at 3am.

I also noticed I didn't drink as much there in rounds as things were calmer and people weren't rushing to get rounds in before closing time.
This was also good in the areas were nightclubs were as they weren't all spilling out onto the streets at the same time. This didn't happen so I think this also reduced the chances of fights etc.

enda1

This this goes back to the old usual trotted out nonsense "but that would never work here!"

Treat people like adults and they'll behave like them.
What I'd like:
- Allow every business to serve alcohol on and off premises
- Rescind all the public drinking by-laws and selectively use them in exceptional circumstances only
- Remove the sin tax on alcohol (excise duty)
- Allow any trading business bar/cinema/restaurant etc. to set their own opening hours

But is this going to happen? To feck it will cause the electorate seems to want to be treated like children by the government, police and legislature. People need to rekindle their personal responsibility.

Ipso

enda1 wrote: »

Treat people like adults and they'll behave like .

I disagree with that part, Irish people in general have a terrible immature attitude to alcohol, and it didn't start with this generation.
It's this attitude that needs to be changed.
Personally I think anyone who drinks and makes a nuisance of themselves should get a severe financial penalty. Let people know if you think you're responsible enough to pour enough alcohol down your neck to launch sputnik , then you are responsible for any resulting actions.

enda1

Ipso wrote: »

snip

Personally I think anyone who drinks and makes a nuisance of themselves should get a severe financial penalty. Let people know if you think you're responsible enough to pour enough alcohol down your neck to launch sputnik , then you are responsible for any resulting actions.

Completely agree. Like I said, treat them like adults. i.e. they are responsible for their actions.

The Drunken Destrier

As someone who works in an off-licence, I'm delighted that I never have to work later than 10pm. However, as someone who finds himself driving home from work at 10.10pm, I find it infuriating that I can't pick up some decent beer like a real life adult.

I don't know how to feel.

minidazzler

Ipro wrote: »

Has anyone noticed the clubs seem in cork seem to stop serving at 2am , opposed to 2.30am in Dublin ?

In particular "the brog" & "crane lane"

No bar in Cork trades past publicly past 2 am on a Friday or Saturday. The Gardai are extremely strict about closing times in Cork... apparently it's something to do with a superintendent in Anglesea street not liking drink.

MonstaMash

The Drunken Destrier wrote: »

As someone who works in an off-licence, I'm delighted that I never have to work later than 10pm. However, as someone who finds himself driving home from work at 10.10pm, I find it infuriating that I can't pick up some decent beer like a real life adult.

I don't know how to feel.

Not taking the pish, but if you work in an offie, can you not pick up decent beer to take home with you source direct

irish_goat

MonstaMash wrote: »

Not taking the pish, but if you work in an offie, can you not pick up decent beer to take home with you source direct

The Drunken Destrier

MonstaMash wrote: »

Not taking the pish, but if you work in an offie, can you not pick up decent beer to take home with you source direct

A good question, but our selection is both limited and severely overpriced. Any off-licence in Cork that says they sell craft beer should at least have Eight Degrees.
There's only so much Guinness Foreign Extra the body can take.

rubadub

The Drunken Destrier wrote: »

A good question, but our selection is both limited and severely overpriced.

I guessed this might be the reason. I remember being amused to see a four star pizza guy in uniform in my local chipper a few times, they presumably would get free pizza or discounted pizza but still go there.

MadYaker

Its feckin stupid. Most towns in Ireland are an absolute clusterf*ck at 2:30am when hundreds of drunks are dumped out on to the streets.