Not drinking up time yet

With no surprise whatsoever, the Government’s new laws on alcohol turn out to be weaker than a non-alcoholic Becks. In fact, this is pretty much the wussiest attempt at dealing with the alcohol problem that could have been managed. A snip at the off-licence hours, a move to remove booze from open sale in convenience stores, a few CCTV cameras outside nightclubs, and a promise to actually enforce legislation already passed that allow on-the-spot fines, and seizing of alcohol on the street.

And, thankfully, they’re cracking down on theatre licences. Well, by cracking down they mean they’ll make it harder for them to get one. Thank God they’re finally hitting those theatres hard. Dens of iniquity the lot of them. Especially those specialising in early European avant-garde. Louts.

So, a pointless exercise all round. They listened to the recommendations of the Alcohol Advisory Group, and then went ahead and ignored several of them. The Government goes on about changing this country’s attitude to alcohol, but it’s unable to change its own attitude to publicans and the drinks industry.

And it means that in a week that a HSE report gave some stark facts about the impact of alcohol in Ireland, the drinks industry will continue its mealy-mouthed defence of itself. It claims it is responsible in all it does, when it continues to target young drinkers through sponsorship and multi-coloured rocket fuel. Frankly, when you have the drink industry and vintners welcoming legislation aimed at tackling the alcohol problem, you can be sure it has nothing to do with their own changing attitudes and more to do with how watered down the legislation is.