A Tipperary publican says the new pub opening hours will be no advantage in rural Ireland.
Pat Hayes from the Arch Bar in Thurles was reacting to the news announced yesterday that pubs would soon be allowed to remain open until 12.30am.
He says that this will just see the time people go out pushed later and fail to generate more income for the business owner.
While he feels that it will be a benefit to businesses in cities and tourist areas, he is skeptical about it creating a boost in rural areas:
“people aren’t getting extra income to go spend in the pubs, so its making the day longer which is going to increase costs for an awful lot of rural pubs I think and because electricity is gone through the roof I don’t see much advantage, it will be great in tourist areas, in Dublin fantastic, but rural Ireland it just doesn’t suit.”
He also expressed his worry around new laws on off license opening hours, that they will encourage more lone drinking.
When the legislation comes into effect it will allow the purchase of alcohol from 10.30am on Sundays.
Pat feels we should be restricting in this area rather than encouraging and thinks it promotes drinking at home and alone:
“don’t encourage people to be drinking at home or alone. I think people don’t realise how much they drink when they go home. If you get a 700ml of vodka that’s 19 drinks , a litre of vodka is 28 drinks, so if you get two people drinking a litre at home that’s 14 drinks each, that’s a lot of drink, people don’t realise that.”
“An awful lot of the night clubs will tell ye it’s 2, 2 and a half drinks per person”
