Govt. closing "Early Houses"

For f*ck sake, will they ever just enforce the laws they already have in place, at this rate Ireland will turn into America, ie: flooding south (or in this case north) of the border whenever they want a drink, maybe aer lingus did have the right idea...:mad:

dublindude wrote: »

The reality is excessive alcohol consumption is a serious problem in this country, and no one is going to stop doing it by asking them nicely. Restrictions are the only option at the moment.

In the UK, they introduced 24 hour pubs - that has been a total disaster: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/03/nbooze103.xml

The reality is we are not too culturally dissimilar to the Brits, so it makes sense that if we have shorter off licence and pub opening hours, we'll have less problems.

I am not a retard, so I am able to go to the off licence before 10 pm, and most people would agree drinking at 8 in the morning is not healthy.

no, drinking at 8 in the morning is not healthy but i'm a grown man and if i want to drink until 8 in the morninig, i'll drink until 8 in the morning. it's not brian cowen's job to lecture me on what i should and shouldn't do with my spare time. it's not his place to ground me so i can't get drink after ten o clock.

dublindude wrote: »

The vast majority of people do not drink in moderation. They can't stop after 1 or 2. They want to keep drinking until they get tired or the pubs close.

Have you ever been in an early house? They're not full of fishermen or miners coming home from work. They're full of freaks and alcos.

I used to believe in the idea of "let people do whatever they want" and "tackle the root cause of the problem", but I have accepted -

1. Most people are stupid and selfish so will do whatever they want anyway.
2. Restrictions are a good idea while you are attempting to tackle the root of the problem. The Government are planning to tackle the root of our alcohol problem. In the meantime, they want to do the second best thing which is to restrict alcohol consumption.

what that means is that you used to believe in democracy, where people can choose to do what they want but now you believe in dictatorship, where the government knows best and should make it illegal to do anything they think you shouldn't be doing

I dont think this will have any affect on the problem we have.

How many 14 year olds go to early houses?

snyper wrote: »

How many 14 year olds go to early houses?

not enough, and its depressing having to chat up the auld wans [would nearly turn a soul to drink]

dublindude wrote: »

I agree with you completely, unfortunately the majority are messing it up for people like you.

you see that's the problem with every law like this. some people have no self control so those with self control suffer.

dublindude wrote: »

The plan (AFAIK) is to tighten the drink rules while they work on the root problem. To me, this is acceptable. They have to do *something*. Tackling the root problem will probably take generations.

tbh, that's probably exactly the thinking that came up with this plan. they have no idea what to do but they have to do something so they do something that will inconvenience thousands of people and not help the problem in any way.

dublindude wrote: »

No, it doesn't mean that at all. It's not a black and white situation.

it kind of does tbh. as far as i'm concerned, people can do whatever they want as long as what they're doing doesn't affect others. it's the beauty of a democratic country.

and when the government starts legislating what people can do with their free time because they think it's unhealthy for them and they know better, then you don't have a democracy anymore

what other social problems can we tackle while we're at it? eating fatty foods causes heart disease. let's restrict the opening hours of fast food places. lack of sleep is bad for you. let's make it illegal to be out of bed after 12. etc etc etc etc

Maximilian wrote: »

I think this is typical of FF. Don't solve the problem, just be damn sure you are seen to be trying to. How many kids do you see in early houses at 7 a.m.?

This isn't sabout kids, it's about everybody. The statistics (somewhere, I can't be arsed finding them again) show that binge drinking is a greater problem in the 35-49 age group than the 16-24 age group. Bet you didn't see that one coming.

For Christ's sake, if you want to drink when "the mood takes you" have a stock at home like any normal person!

ninty9er wrote: »

This isn't sabout kids, it's about everybody. The statistics (somewhere, I can't be arsed finding them again) show that binge drinking is a greater problem in the 35-49 age group than the 16-24 age group. Bet you didn't see that one coming.

The problem here is that the drikning culture starts when you 16, sometimes younger. You promote good habits in younger years, your problems are sorted. As someone said, a lineral, more continental approach is needed.

The problem is that to our govenremnt, liberalism is a dirty word. The approach seems to be to BAN BAN BAN and keep BANNING until the problem goes away.

What irritates me is that this os one of those moves that people can't really fight, because it will make them look bad. It's just like trying to get the good Friday drinking law repealed.

I suggest we chain ourselves to the dail and get boozed up in protest.

dublindude wrote: »

"I'm just finished school. Hmmm I fancy doing medicine. Oh no, wait, I need 600 points for that. If only I had of thought of that earlier..."

What I'm saying is, I have 1000 points but can't get in because it's the wrong time of day to apply...

dublindude wrote: »

I cannot think of anything apart from restricting alcohol sales.

If the off licences closing an hour early and the pubs not opening at 8 o'clock is a big problem for you, then you're the exact person the Government is trying to target.

If alcohol sales were restricted to - say 1pm to 2 pm then there would be chaos for an hour every day as people got their daily 'fix'. society would change very little because of it.

Which do you think is better?
Enforce the existing laws on underage drinking and public disorder
- or -
create new laws and apply the current level of non enforcement?

I'm living in Berlin and have been since December. Throughout this time I'm pretty convinced that Berliners drink about the same amount as Irish people. Every day while commuting I see people on the trains drinking a bottle of beer, during the afternoon or evening. Usually looks like guys on their way home from work etc.

Does there ever seem to be any trouble? No. Since all my time living here I have not seen one fight or even one scuffle or stand off or sizing up or anything like this.

There are clubs here that open at 10am on Sunday mornings and go on until 6pm on Sunday.

Is the place falling to pieces with people causing havoc at all hours? No. Everyone here is very fcking civil and seems to have a very mature approach to drinking and partying in general.

The way I feel sometimes about the whole thing is that in Ireland, people are told exactly when they can socialise/party, and under what conditions. This creates a threshold of entertainment, in that if they don't succeed in being fulfilled in those 4 or 5 hours, they better neck a few pints in the last hour and hope that the night is going to get better. If after doing so they haven't scored, they are then more likely to vent their frustration on some poor fvcker on the street, or be so pi$$ed that they can hardly stumble their way in to a taxi.

Without this "threshold of entertainment", like in most other European countries, if someone doesn't feel their night is over, they can just mosey on to the next bar or club even if it is ,gasp, 3 or 4am, have a few more drinks at their own pace because they're not racing against a curfew, take the night at their own pace, and head on home when they are either too tired, too pissed, or just bored.

Would the same thing succeed in Ireland? Maybe not for the first few months, but eventually people will have to adapt a more mature approach to alcohol if their jobs and general livelihood depended on it.

Are the government actually afraid that the country would degrade towards Armageddon if 24 hour licensing was brought in?