Section 9 deals mainly with the granting of occasional licences for different functions. My particular interest is in dances. It is true that formerely permission was got from the Revenue Commissioners and now I understand that due to the change in this Bill, it will come direct from the district justice. The effect is the same. It will take effect up to sunrise, which I understand has been agreed at eight o'clock in the morning. I have no interest in the time.
I am mainly interested in two facts. One is that in the rural areas a substantial meal must accompany the dance. As I have already indicated to the Minister—and I shall not repeat myself because I do not believe in holding up the House—in the rural and urban areas, the means of providing a substantial meal are just not there. In my own little town with a population of 5,000, we have a town hall which serves for holding dances, plays, and other functions and in their own way, the people there confine their activities to the town hall.
There is no means there of catering for and providing a substantial meal. On occasions, we have up to 200 or 300 couples attending dances which they enjoy, but they require the same stimulation for dancing as is given in Dublin or anywhere else. I have already suggested to the Minister— apparently he has not listened to me— that unless we have a substantial meal, we cannot have a dance with a licence. If that is his attitude, I must, much as I regret it, vote against this Bill and challenge a vote on this section.
I expressed my general attitude to the Minister earlier—perhaps I was out of order—that he might consider an extension of the number which is limited to four dances in the area. Four dances could be taken up by four clubs. I do not want to name them or put them in any order, but the local GAA club, the soccer club, the Labour Party club or the Fianna Fáil Party club are entitled to have dances. They are used mainly as social functions and to build up the financial support which their supporters are willing to give.
The Minister will be doing a severe injustice to the rural and urban areas if he insists on this substantial meal as a condition on which a licence can be given. I suggest to him that we should have some confidence in the ability of the district justice in the area to decide whether or not it is a lawful occasion, whether or not the licence should be issued, with the right to the superintendent of the Garda to come and object, with the right to the clergy and to any well-meaning or ill-meaning citizens to lodge their protests. Let the district justice, in his wisdom, as heretofore decide whether it is a function within the meaning of the Act to which he should give a licence, with such limitations as he may decide, whether it should be from 12 to 2 a.m. or whatever hour he decides.
Normally, in my town, a bar licence consists of an extension from, or opening at, 12 o'clock and closing at 2 o'clock. That is two hours. The dances usually continue until 3 o'clock and there is no drunken spree, nothing but a means of refreshment for those taking part. If the Minister insists on the section as it is, I fear he is doing a most unfair thing to the people in my area. Certain privileged classes—I say this with all respect to them—such as those who run the hunt ball, may charge say 35/- for a ball and can bring reputable caters from Dublin or Naas and can include the 5/- in the entrance fee. I ..... suggest that is wrong because the local hurling or soccer club, the local Fianna Fáil Party, the Labour Party or Fine Gael Party—except perhaps the golf club— should not be penalised because they are not able to ask their supporters to pay an entrance fee of 7/6, which is normal for a four- or five-hour dance, plus 5/- for a meal, which in most cases none of those attending wants to eat and even if they did, there is usually no means of catering for them.
I suggest this is an impractical provision. I suggest it will stop, with few exceptions, urban areas from holding social functions, with a bar. If the Minister says he wants to do that, let us be clear that is class legislation and I shall vote against it. I shall demand a division. I think it is rotten and wrong. I hope the Minister is not going to do that.
In a county or area where there is only one centre at which such functions can take place, instead of four occasions in the year, we should give, say, ten special occasions when they can have dances without this special meal. I think ten would suffice. Under the present Act, all we get, I think, is nine. I appeal to the Minister to be reasonable. This is not a question of trying to get a bona fide trade set up when the remainder of the town is closed down. This is something that will give social life to a country town which can be very dull, give an opportunity to those who live there to carry on their normal lives and pursuits, encourage Gaelic, tennis, soccer or social clubs. I am not much of a dancing man; I go to dances only by compulsion. I am not speaking for myself but I believe I am expressing the view of my constituents as a whole in saying that the Minister should reconsider this. If he can give an undertaking that he will do so, I am prepared to allow it to go to the Report Stage to see what he produces.
