A Fine Gael Senator has said that it was “nonsense” to say bar staff would get extra pay for working on Good Friday if the ban on pubs, restaurants and off-licences opening that day was lifted.
Senator Joe O’Reilly opposed the Intoxicating Liquor (Amendment) Bill introduced by Independent Senator Billy Lawless to end the 90-year prohibition on licensed premises opening on Good Friday.
The Bill will not be blocked by the Government and is supported by all parties but opposed by a number of Independents and Mr O’Reilly.
He said he believed a lot of workers would be exploited by the move. He said “we shouldn’t always measure what we do in society on purely commercial basis”.
He said Good Friday closure had surpassed religious traditions and “has become part of our national identity. It is, after all, a matter which is often viewed as being distinctly Irish”.
Mr O’Reilly said visitors to Ireland “are attracted by our values” and he knew tourists “who would be turned off by a society who would be regarded as too bland, homogenous and too reflective of western values”.
But Mr Lawless, who introduced the Bill, said Holy Thursday is one of the biggest business days for off-licences in the entire year.
“We need to remove cheap low cost alcohol from supermarkets and off-licences. Currently an 18-year-old with €10 can buy 10 cans of beer on Holy Thursday but cannot walk into a pub and meet friends and buy two or three drinks for the same money on Good Friday.”
Real damage
Mr Lawless, a publican and restaurateur said he had seen the real damage alcohol did. He said businesses lost an estimated €30 million and €40 million as a result of the closure.
Minister of State David Stanton said the Government would not block the Bill and there was a case for a thorough re-examination of the current Good Friday rules.
But he said this could not be viewed entirely in isolation from the wider context of public concern about excessive consumption of intoxicating liquor and the extent of alcohol-related harm, including significant health risks.
But he said any reform of the Good Friday rules should not create further anomalies and unfair competition for categories of licence holders.
Independent Ronan Mullen said the fabric of Irish society would not be torn apart by the Bill but nor would the common good be served.
He said, “I’m not going to get my knickers in a twist on this” but he said the “aggressive seculars need to grow up”. He added that the “canny drinks people see the opportunity to present their crass commercial case in terms that will appeal to the media”.
He said the argument was never about religion because there was no ban on selling meat, no closure of butchers’ shops. He said it was to stop drunken disorder.
Independent David Norris said one of the few good things done by the early free State parliament was the introduction of the Good Friday ban on pub openings.
“The last thing we need is another free for all on the holiest day of the year. But this is all about money.”
Panic buying
Gabrielle McFadden (FG) said almost 60 per cent of pubs now served food and said it was no longer realistic to expect one sector of the hospitality industry to remain closed while shops and other businesses remain open.
Independent Frances Black, a campaigner on addiction, supported the legislation. She said the panic buying in the days before Good Friday had been marred by excessive drinking in homes and this sent out the wrong message to young people.
She welcomed proposals for further regulation of public houses, many of which were serving alcohol to already intoxicated customers.
Independent Gerard Craughwell said there are Irish pubs in more than 40 countries, a “gold mine” for owners trading on the Irish reputation for hospitality, culture and good craic.
Pubs in Ireland were “honeypots” for tourists and keeping them closed on Good Friday made no moral or commercial sense.
“There is a curious irony in the fact that you can drink in an Irish pub anywhere in the world except in Ireland,” Mr Craughwell said.
