Irish Election are pleased to announce our collection of Irish 
Alcohol in Ireland.
Read more about: Health
Update: Turbalence Ahead blog links to a recent study by UCD on the causes of drinking in Ireland. Although using UCD as a sample of the population probably is not the most scienctific measure. These are some of the causes.
- if the student attended an all boy full boarding school
- if there is a cricket club in the student’s home town
- if the student is Irish (not foreign)
- if the student is male (not female)
- if the student is from a Church of Ireland background
- if the student is in the early years of his or her degree
- the amount the student’s mother drank
- whether older siblings drank
The governments proposals on curbing Alcohol are in a word useless.
Under the provisions of a draft Bill, off-licences would have to close by 10pm each night and gardaí would be allowed to seize alcohol if they suspected someone may breach public order.
Gardaí would also be allowed to test pubs and other outlets by sending in underage people to try to buy drink, in order to expose breaches of the law.
The bill would also make it a statutory requirement for late-opening pubs and nightclubs to have CCTV systems in place.
Where alcohol is on display in supermarkets and convenience stores it would have to be in a structurally separate area and if that was not possible it would have to be sold from behind a counter.
This is going to achieve absolutely nothing. Putting the price of alcohol would do nothing (well put it at 40 quid a pint maybe but throw 3 euro on the price pint nada). We in Ireland as a nation have a drink problem. Being paralytic drunk vomiting on the streets is grand. How many people do not take pride that Ireland tops so many drinking tables, who has not gone to some foreigner sure we Irish can drink ye under the table?
The object of a night out is to get drunk. Doing to useless measure as shutting off-licenses will not change that culture. It will not stop alcohol related abuse in the home and in society, It will not do any of this. Places in Europe without our drink culture have longer opening hours do they have rampant alcohol abuse? No. The point is no law the government is going to pass is going to make
Jesus I was fucking locked last night
Redundant as a perfectly normal and worthy statement for many people. Truly addressing drink culture is going to take more then offies closing at 10. But that law is easy to pass. The real solution which I don’t know what it is is far harder to do and probably beyond the means of most politicians hence we get “alcohol must be display in structurally separate area” as the solution to all our problems
It’s a crock of shit all right. It’s not going to curb anti-social behaviour and it’s redundant to isolate its significance in anti-social behaviour, it’s merely one factor among many. This won’t affect consumption either: look at supermarkets on Holy Thursday on account of the pig-ignorant laws on Good Friday. People are buying drink that they wouldn’t ordinarily in case they fancy a drink on Good Friday. I’d have no problem with raising the age for drinking in pubs to 21, I’d actually favour that, but I wouldn’t make it illegal to drink at 17- teenagers having a moderate drink at home with their parents would mean they respect limits and understand the effects of alcohol in a safe environment rather than hanging out the back of a school getting hammered on naggins and endangering themselves and others, which is what happens in our current climate.
This is distraction legislation, this is taking the eye off the ball while you show the voting public how good you are at tying your laces. Or at least, tying knots in things.
There’s no better portfolio than Justice, E & LR where a minister can do absolutely nothing but make it look like he/she’s doing something.
Given the timing of this announcement I can’t see it serving any other purpose than to give us something to remember Brian Lenihan having done when he is confirmed Tánaiste in a couple of weeks.
Real solution? Sharia law perhaps?
So if the off licences are closing earlier does that mean I’ll have to drink earlier in the day?
This is another case of a problem that the law shouldn’t be used as a cudgel to solve. Instead we should be looking at funding and facilitating premises so those under 18 can get together with light adult supervision and do basic stuff like listen to music, play pool, make out and so on. Youth clubs are all well and good but they can be bit on the twee side and we need to be offering alternatives to those on the margins.