The Bill introduces modest and limited amendments to the Licensing Acts. Its main aim is to ensure that shops and supermarkets that have licensed sections can open as if it was a weekday on any Christmas Eve or 23 December that falls on Sunday. The last time Christmas Eve or 23 December fell on a Sunday was five years ago. This year Christmas Eve is on Sunday and then the legislation will not be relevant until the year 2000 and I cannot say who will be here then.
The Bill has a simple and straightforward purpose. It recognises that people like to shop, eat out or simply meet their friends for a drink on Christmas Eve, even when it falls on a Sunday. It will facilitate retail businesses and consumers alike in the immediate run up to Christmas. In the interests of fairness, its provisions will extend to other licensed premises and registered clubs.
With Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday this year, restricted trading hours would apply to premises licensed to sell alcohol, like shops, supermarkets, pubs, restaurants and off licences. Were that to remain the position, it would cause unnecessary difficulties for people who rely on food shops being opened during their final preparations for the festive season. I have in mind people shopping for fresh foods in the run up to Christmas and those persons who like shopping up to the last moment; people for whom such shopping has become a tradition. Of course, many people like to shop and sample the Christmas atmosphere as family groups on Christmas Eve. There are also those who, because of work commitments or because some family members are living or working away from home, find it difficult to organise a family shopping day until Christmas is almost upon them.
The present position under the Licensing Acts is that, when Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday, licensed premises cannot open for business until 12.30 p.m. and have to close their doors between 2.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m. For the owners of, and shoppers in, most premises with off licences this would mean an unpleasant day. One could easily envisage the chaos that would ensue in supermarkets, especially at the check-outs, if the available shopping time was shortened on what is one of the busiest days of the year. Some shop owners might take the view that trading on Christmas Eve would be so disjointed, it would be better, safer even, to keep their premises closed all day. Uncertainty as to which shops would open and which would close would add to the problems for shoppers.
Pubs and off licences will be able to open as if it was a weekday on what is normally a very busy day for them, a day on which persons who may not have met one another for a year may want to socialise over a drink. The supply of meals in hotels and restaurants with wine or pub type licences would be restricted without a change. Such premises would not be able to open between the hours of 3.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m.
That is why I have decided to introduce this short Bill, which this year will do no more than allow shops with licensed sections, pubs, registered clubs and restaurants with licences, to operate on Christmas Eve as they did last year and ever other year that it falls on a weekday. It will not provide for later opening hours in public houses because their closing time on Sunday nights and week nights during the winter months is 11 p.m.
Section 2 will allow licensed premises to operate weekday permitted hours on any Sunday that falls on Christmas Eve or on 23 December. Section 4 extends that concept to restaurants and hotels that serve alcohol with substantial meals. Section 5 extends it to registered clubs and section 6 extends it to restaurants with special restaurant licences. Section 3 will allow licensed premises which also have non-licensing business to operate the weekday mixed trading provisions of the licensing Acts on any Christmas Eve or 23 December that falls on a Sunday.
Section 2 amends the general permitted hours provision of the licensing Acts so the hours that apply to premises such as public houses, hotel bars and restaurants with full licenses as well as off licences and supermarkets which retail the full range of alcoholic drinks, will, on any Christmas Eve or 23 December that falls on a Sunday, be the same as if either such day was a week day. I am including in my proposal any year that 23 December falls on a Sunday, as the arguments for week day hours on a Christmas Eve Sunday also apply to any 23 December that falls on a Sunday. The net effect of section 2 is that the premises I have referred to will be able to open for licensed business at 10.30 a.m. on Christmas Eve this year and will not have to close between 2.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m.
Section 3 deals with mixed trading. For anyone who may not be familiar with the concept, mixed trading, in the context of the licensing Acts, refers to businesses which involve both the sale of drink — licensed businesses — and the sale of other commodities, referred to as non-licensed business. The licensing Acts make allowance for the demands of such businesses by permitting them to open early during weekdays for non-licensed business only. This is to facilitate, for instance, the delivery of goods from suppliers to businesses such as a grocery with an off licence. Section 3 will enable these week day mixed trading provisions to apply to the premises concerned on a Christmas Eve or 23 December which falls on a Sunday. That means shops with off licences attached will be able to open for non-licensed business at 7.30 a.m. on Christmas Eve this year and shops and supermarkets with off licences will be able to open for non-licensed business at 9.00 a.m.
Such businesses are simply being allowed to commence their non-licensed business on Christmas Eve this year as on every other year that Christmas Eve falls on a weekday. The licensed business will commence at 10.30 a.m. This is the reason, not always well understood or appreciated, persons can purchase their shopping in, for example, supermarkets from 9.00 a.m. on a weekday but have to wait until 10.30 a.m. to purchase alcohol.
Section 13 of the 1927 Intoxicating Liquor Act, as amended, allows less restrictive hours to apply to the sale of alcohol with meals in hotels and restaurants. Section 4 will extend the more generous week day provisions to 23 or 24 December which falls on a Sunday. Thus, that section will allow, for example, a family which is delayed by shopping or other reasons, to obtain a meal in any of the premises concerned at any time in the afternoon of the coming Christmas Eve. Without this amendment it could not do so between 3.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m. It will also allow hotels and restaurants to serve alcoholic drinks with substantial meals on a 23 December that falls on a Sunday as if it were a week night, i.e. until 12.30 a.m. When 24 December is a Sunday, alcoholic drinks can only be served and consumed with substantial meals until midnight, because, except where there is specific statutory intervention, Christmas Day is a closed day in licensed premises.
Section 5 extends the proposed changes to registered clubs and section 6 extends them to restaurants with special restaurant licences. In the case of restaurants with special restaurant licences, the usual Sunday afternoon times when alcoholic drinks cannot be served with substantial meals is slightly different from other licensed premises — it is 3.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m. Therefore, this year persons eating out in such restaurants on Christmas Eve will be able to have a drink with their meal no matter what time of the afternoon they are eating.
Like the Minister for the Environment I too call for sanity and care on our roads over Christmas. There has been a marked change in peoples' habits when it comes to driving without drink and it is essential that this change extends to all. The Garda will enforce the law vigorously and I appeal to drivers to have patience when queues of traffic build up at Garda check points as we will all be winners in the end if fewer people drink and drive.
I look forward to the co-operation of the Senators to these proposed modest changes in the law. I also expect and look forward to other issues relevant to the licensing Acts being raised. I will listen carefully to any points made. While this legislation does not allow for a widespread review of the licensing Acts in the short term, it is only a matter of time before such a review is required.
When this Bill went through the Dáil, we dealt with many matters, such as pubs in tourist areas, selling drugs in licensed premises, opening hours, deregulating and confining hours, not allowing drink to be sold in certain places etc. However, the purpose of this Bill is to ensure this proposal is operable by 24 December. The next time this becomes relevant is in the year 2000. If I had allowed the Dáil debate to colour my actions, it would have been that year before this change was made.
I ask for a short debate not because I believe Senators will make invalid points on the licensing laws but amendments asking me to look at similar cases for St. Patrick's Day and New Year's Eve were put down. I do not believe that any other day in the year meets the same circumstances that I am trying to tackle here — that is, the combination of a family shopping day and the kind of celebrating that people do around Christmas time. The same thing does not necessarily apply to some of the other days that were mentioned, but that is not to say that at a later stage people might not make comments about that. I suggested in the Dáil that licensing legislation — some of it dating back many years — could be reviewed by the committees of the House.
Nothing is more destined to raise a head of steam than matters which require licences, such as fish, taxis and drink. We have an antenna that builds up a huge head of steam about anything we need a licence for. Relevant changes were suggested to me by Members in the Dáil but even minor changes to the licensing laws can have a knock-on effect for other groups, for example, those concerned about the use of alcohol in our society.
I make these concluding remarks so Members will not think that I am being discourteous or ungracious. I hope I have built up a record in this House of normally being very open to amendments. However, in this instance, I will get my retaliation in first by saying that I will not be in a position to accept amendments.