Darth Vader
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It was announced today that the Minister has backed down from his proposals to bring in so-called Cafe Bars whcih he had touted as a method of changing the culture of binge drinking in this country. As the Minister does not back down very often it has been suggested that there was huge pressure applied on the Government by the Publicans, who were aghast at the prospect of losing their very lucrative cartel on drinking in this country. Their argument being that cafe-bars would lead to more abuse of alcohol as it would result in alcohol being more readily available. The people of Ireland not being responsible enough to make their own decision on this matter, it would appear.
The problem with abuse of alcohol in this country is made all the worse by a few easily identified areas such as 1. The sky high price of soft drinks in a bar. Where is the logic in this? The publicans make huge profits on soft drinks leaving people who are not drinking alcohol for the night paying almost as much for a night out as those that are.
2. The closing hours of our pubs / niteclubs with people rushing to the bar before last orders, encouraging people to drink large volumes in a short space of time as the pubs etc close at a ridiculously early hour.
I think the cafe- bar would have been a step forward in changing peoples attitude to alcohol in this country and i am very disappointed that the Government were intimidated and allowed themselves to be bullied by the Publicans.
The problem with abuse of alcohol in this country is made all the worse by a few easily identified areas such as 1. The sky high price of soft drinks in a bar. Where is the logic in this? The publicans make huge profits on soft drinks leaving people who are not drinking alcohol for the night paying almost as much for a night out as those that are.
2. The closing hours of our pubs / niteclubs with people rushing to the bar before last orders, encouraging people to drink large volumes in a short space of time as the pubs etc close at a ridiculously early hour.
I think the cafe- bar would have been a step forward in changing peoples attitude to alcohol in this country and i am very disappointed that the Government were intimidated and allowed themselves to be bullied by the Publicans.