The principle of giving bona fide restaurants facilities to provide drink with a meal is one with which I can readily agree. However, I do not want to see this exercise develop to a stage where in issuing special restaurant licences we are creating another pub. That is my dilemma with regard to that aspect of this new legislation. The Irish publican, and especially the rural publicans has for generations played an important part in Irish life. Many of these public houses are family concerns and the purchase and development of these premises have cost those people dearly. After all their expenditure and years of providing a service, with all that it entails in terms of long, unsociable working hours, it would strike me as being a grave injustice if other pubs could materialise on their doorsteps in the guise of licensed restaurants. This injustice would be compounded by allowing the new pub to come into being for what I consider the paltry sum of £3,000. This proposed initial fee should be substantially higher. I fully realise that the Minister, in putting together this legislation, has included control mechanisms geared to prevent such abuses and irregularities, but it is the question of the actual implementation of these controls that fuels my apprehension. Perhaps on Committee Stage there will be an opportunity to elaborate further on this aspect.
In Part III of the Bill the Minister is introducing some welcome innovations in the area of prohibited hours. In the past year or so there has been much speculation and diverse suggestions by interested groups on the extent to which hours of business should be increased. There have been suggestions that any increase in these hours should vary in accordance with the location of the premises, that is, whether they are in holiday resort areas and so forth. In this regard the Minister, in his quest for and commitment to achieving some level of uniformity in closing times, has got this one right. He proposes to let the status quo obtain in the period from Monday to Saturday and also to continue with the winter-summer situation, with one important alteration, in the area of drinking-up time, which he has increased to a half-hour instead of the ludicrous ten minutes which currently obtains. This will bring about a far more acceptable situation at closing time for both drinker and vendor. There currently exists a practice of purchasing and stocking up drinks immediately prior to closing time. The efforts of publicans to clear the premises in the ten minute period can be both futile and irritating. The extension of Sunday opening hours from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. is also a very sensible move. It can be exasperating for people, particularly in summer and at holiday time, to be ousted from their drinking place at 10 o'clock on Sunday night. Any publican will confirm that Sunday night is the most difficult time to effect a clearance of the premises.
Among the many positive aspects of this legislation is the proposal to improve the situation with regard to the running of clubs. This is an area in which there exists and has existed gross abuse. Some clubs are, in effect, running their bars in the same way as do pubs. The only difference is that they are afforded far greater leeway with regard to inspection and control. Sections 40 to 42, inclusive, of this legislation herald major improvements in this entire area. Henceforth clubs will be subject to the same level of Garda inspection and control as licensed premises. Up to this time pubs which operated in other than a proper and legal manner openly flouted the law in the secure knowledge that there was little danger of their being apprehended or penalised. Local residents, and particularly local business people, were loth to tender objections. The Minister's introduction of the provision to allow any person, that is persons other than those resident in the particular parish, to lodge objections to the renewal of club certificates on any of the grounds of objection specified will introduce a measure of control which is sadly and amazingly absent at present.
I should like to comment briefly on sections 30 to 39, inclusive, which deal with provisions relating to persons under the age of 18. The previous speaker, Deputy McCartan, was loud in his condemnation of the peddlers of alcoholic drinks to under-age people and I, I am sure like all other Deputies, will likewise condemn that despicable practice. This is a serious and complex problem and, it would appear, a growing one. While we must provide appropriate and adequate legislation in this regard, one could legislate until the cows come home without making substantial improvements in the situation unless the problem is tackled in a number of other areas. Education on alcohol and making the child aware of the implications of drinking is the crucial requirement. This must be tackled primarily in the home and the schools and, indeed, all adult members of the community have a role and a responsibility in this.
I believe that the vast majority of people and, in the context of this legislation, the vast majority in the business of selling alcoholic drinks, are responsible. In particular, most publicans want to run their premises in a proper and honourable manner. Most are parents themselves and know only too well their responsibilities in this regard. However, as in all trades and professions, there exists a minority of unscrupulous cowboy operators who will not take the responsible approach. It is the responsible and honourable publican that I have in mind when I question the proposal of removing the word "knowingly" from this legislation. Here I would take issue with Deputy McCartan. This change is putting a huge onus and responsibility on the genuine publican, particularly if it is done without the simultaneous introduction of some kind of identification mechanism. I am not all that convinced about the potential success of an ID system and have my own reservations about its effectiveness. However, in my constituency at present a pilot scheme is being launched in the town of Arklow and I shall be watching this with great interest. We are putting a major, and perhaps an unjustifiably heavy, onus on the genuine publican by removing that important terminology without introducing some ID system or other substitute.
There is a change with regard to the admission of children to licensed premises. There is varied opinion as to the propriety or otherwise of this change. As a parent and as a member of the licensed trade I agree that it can be a good thing to allow children to be present from time to time in licensed premises, in the company of their parents. It helps if children are exposed to the dangers. Know thine enemy is the key phrase. There is a certain mystique and a macho image attached to drinking. If children are introduced in a controlled, orderly and responsible fashion in the company of their parents to drink, it will help to remove that mystique and the erroneous concept that can lead them into serious and sometimes fatal situations.
The Minister's careful research and his communication with relevant parties in preparing this legislation has resulted in his achieving a well balanced Bill which will substantially improve things for both the publican and the trade.