Let’s not conflate our pent-up fantasies of dancing until dawn, with more alcohol sales.
By Eunan McKinney.
The ‘2020 Programme for Government – Our Shared Future’, committed to the urgent establishment of a taskforce that would promote vibrant and sustainable night-time culture and economy. This 2019 initiative began its formal work in July 2020 under the direction of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
More recently, the Minister for Justice has injected further impetus, before the taskforce has completed its work, by announcing that her department will publish a new General Scheme of a Bill to modernise and update Ireland’s licensing laws to support our hospitality and cultural sectors and the night-time economy – “the worst affected by the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Central to the measures being promoted is a relaxation of licensing laws and regulations “to support the development of the night-time economy so our cities can take their place among the cultural capitals of the world”.
Measures under consideration include a reform of trading laws for the sale of alcohol in pubs and off-licences. Sunday sales in pubs are currently limited to 12.30pm to 11pm and off-licences can only sell alcohol until 10pm.
Under the proposals in the Department of Justice Plan the Sunday trading hours could be aligned with the longer hours allowed in the rest of the week and a new annual nightclub permit could be created to allow for longer opening hours.
Under the proposals in the Department of Justice Plan the Sunday trading hours could be aligned with the longer hours allowed in the rest of the week and a new annual nightclub permit could be created to allow for longer opening hours.
But the liberalisation of such measures must come within an analysis of the possible consequences. Equally, they must be consistent with the objectives of existing public health policy, which seeks to recalibrate society’s engagement with alcohol and reduce the demand for, and the availability and promotion of, alcohol.
Over the last two generations, Ireland has been transformed by a liberalisation of our economy and society. These changes have stimulated enormous gains in our prosperity but also in our personal freedoms and cultural interests.
However, in the period of expansion and reform from the 1960s to the early noughties, Ireland’s alcohol use trebled. An illustration of that momentum is evident in the explosion of Special Exemption Orders granted through the 1970s, growing from 14,800 at the opening of the decade to close at 42,100. In that decade alone, alcohol use grew by a third from 7.1 to 9.5 litres per capita (>15 yrs old).
Through our next period of ‘light-touch’ economic expansion in the 1990s, alcohol use grew by 28% from 11 to 14.1 litres. And, while t alcohol use has fallen since that hedonistic period, today Ireland’s demand for alcohol remains high at 10.8 litres pure alcohol per capita. This is 56% beyond the public health advice of low-risk level drinking and 68% beyond the global average.
Our economy, post-pandemic, will undoubtedly need regeneration but we shouldn’t conflate our passion to dance early into the morning with a market expansion for alcohol use; the drive to market our cultural experience is yet a further demonstration of a relentless march towards a market society where, to be valued, everything must be in the market.
Ireland has long held a relaxed attitude to problematic patterns of drinking and heavy alcohol use. Studies on the prevalence of alcohol use report an underestimation by individual drinkers, a consistent lack of understanding of the harm to themselves or to others, as well as a significant shift from drinking in licenced premises to home drinking.
Studies on the prevalence of alcohol use report an underestimation by individual drinkers, a consistent lack of understanding of the harm to themselves or to others, as well as a significant shift from drinking in licenced premises to home drinking. The greatest victim of this experience has been the generations of children who have had to navigate the chaos of heavy episodic drinking in the home and the disruption to their developing lives from a parent or guardian who sadly has fallen victim to the dependency of alcohol.
Market-led reforms have consequences and the Government, and its Night-time Economy Taskforce, need to be mindful of these. Decades of sustained liberalisation of alcohol availability, access, promotion and price, have generated thousands of deaths annually from alcohol-related illness and incidents; a 400 percent increase in mortality from alcohol liver disease since 1970; a public-expenditure cost of €3.6 billion, including 11% of all public healthcare expenditure; as well as an immeasurable cost to our economy and society of lost creativity, enterprise and human potential.
While supportive of the development of a night-time public realm we must ensure that this is not forever alcocentric. This should afford the Taskforce an opportunity to reimagine the creative entertainment offering.
While supportive of the development of a night-time public realm we must ensure that this is not forever alcocentric.
This should afford the Taskforce an opportunity to reimagine the creative entertainment offering. It has a chance to challenge a social norm, one primarily sustained by alcohol producers’ marketing strategies, that our most exciting experiences can be enjoyed, or sustained, without the accompaniment of alcohol. Over the last two decades, we have witnessed the commercial capture of sports, traditional arts, popular music and tourism by an alcohol industry keen to exploit cultural and sociable engagement.
A significant obstacle to our citizens, or visitors, enjoying a vibrant night-time economy is a fear of public drunkenness and related anti-social behaviour. A 2018 HSE/TCD study, ‘The Untold Story’, reaffirms that view, with 27% of people surveyed confirming being bothered by the drinking of strangers; 23% highlighting that they had been harassed on the street; and one in five feeling unsafe in public places.
In New South Wales, simulation of a 3 a.m. (rather than 5 a.m.) closing time resulted in an estimated 12.3% reduction in total acute alcohol‐related harms
There is a common view that relaxing licensing restrictions and, in particular, extending and staggering opening hours, will reduce the scale of unruly public behaviour. However, research from other economies, demonstrates that issues of public order are merely pushed later into the night, stretching further limited policing resources. Studies from Australia, the Netherlands and Norway demonstrate that for every additional hour of licensed premises’ opening, one is likely to see an increase in assaults. In New South Wales, simulation of a 3 a.m. (rather than 5 a.m.) closing time resulted in an estimated 12.3 ± 2.4% reduction in total acute alcohol‐related harms, a 7.9 ± 0.8% reduction in violence, an 11.9 ± 2.1% reduction in Emergency Department presentations and a 9.5 ± 1.8% reduction in hospitalisations. Further reductions were achieved simulating a 1 a.m. closing time, including a 17.5 ± 1.1% reduction in alcohol‐related violence.
The Taskforce could examine the positive impact of the Cardiff Model, and the work published on violencepreventionwales.co.uk, where analysis of collected geographical and detailed incidence data, matched with the targeted policing resources has reduced the levels of public order incidents in night-time settings. Establishing such robust data resources would also be supportive of the objectives of the Public Health Alcohol Act.
The desirable development of a vibrant and sustainable night-time culture and economy, especially as we emerge from a devastating pandemic, must not repeat past errors or pour fuel on a greater societal alcohol problem.
Eunan McKinney is Head of Communications and Advocacy at Alcohol Action Ireland, the national independent advocate for reducing alcohol harm