I was asking before Question Time who were the people for whom it is necessary to provide these hours of drinking. I submit it is not the ordinary hotel residents. The ordinary drinker in hotels or restaurant bars is the kind of person who usually has gone home before the present hours of closing. They are not looking for longer sessions. This can well be described as class legislation introduced to afford people who have more money than brains opportunities to drink after the normal times. It is introduced to afford facilities to the well-heeled gentlemen who were usually well-oiled and who caused all the trouble and difficulty that was complained of when we were trying to get rid of the bona fide traffic. Why should this be done to facilitate such a set of people?
Here is a case where we are departing from the principle of uniformity. We are increasing the hours now being allowed for this kind of drinking. At present it is an hour after the public houses close. Now it is suggested that it be extended to an hour and a half after that. I am thinking of the employee who has to put up with these people who come in well lit up and cause trouble. He has no protection against them. The hotel employers were reluctant to implement the present Liquor Act. They did not want it; the employees did not want it and there was no great demand for it from the regular customers. The Act was in existance for some months before it was availed of, and in some hotels and restaurants even up to the present they do not operate the hours allowed under the present Act. I hold that the hotels should not be allowed to open for any longer than at present.
I would like to draw the attention of the House to the fact that there are very few licensed restaurants in this country. In Dublin they are so few that you could count them on the fingers of one hand, so where is the demand for these extra hours?
