New laws on opening hours won't work "in places like this" - publican

RURAL New closing time of 12.30am for Saturdays still not late enough

A local publican insists the new licensing laws for bars and clubs should permit bars to stay open later than 12.30am on Saturday nights.

Brendan Fay says the government has "missed a trick" by catering for city nightlife, but ignoring the needs of rural communities.

The new bill streamlines licensing laws, and aims to "support and stimulate the night-time economy". If passed, it would allow pubs open from 10.30am to 12.30am, seven days a week. A further change which would see closing time for nightclubs put back to 6am will be piloted in Dublin city, Cork city, Limerick city, Galway city, Kilkenny, Drogheda, Sligo, Buncrana and Longford town.

Brendan Fay, who owns The Widow's Bar in Belturbet, accepted the proposed changes in the General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill are an improvement. However, he is insists pubs, particularly in rural counties with few nightclubs, should be permitted.

"It's good for Sunday night because most people don't want to go home early," said Brendan, who is also an Independent councillor.

"I would have liked it if they extended it further for pubs on Saturday night. We only have one night club in County Cavan. People come out on a Saturday and at 12.30pm nobody wants to go home early.

"If pubs were extended until 2am on a Saturday it would have been brilliant, it's not far enough.

"Is everyone going to leave the pubs and go there [Cavan's one nightclub]? There are a lot of older people that would prefer to stay in their local pub. It would save people the expense of getting taxis to and from Cavan, paying in and things like that."

He believes the proposed law changes are more aimed at urban rather than rural areas.

"When people are making the laws, they only look at Dublin. They're not looking at places like Cavan. There are a lot of nightclubs there, rural Ireland has been forgotten about.

"None of my customers are going to go to Dublin. I think they're missing a trick by not extending the hours at the weekend."

This city bias, in Brendan's opinion, is shown by their approach to weekday licensing.

We open until 11.30pm from Monday to Thursday but since Covid you notice there's not many out after 9.30-10pm. We will close if nobody is around. Now that it's been extended it's an extra two hours that people aren't out."

He suspects some publicans will feel obliged to stay open later during the week, at extra cost, without generating the revenue to justify it.

"They'll be reluctant to close early because they could lose out on regular customers who could come in and would go somewhere else the next night if it's closed.

"People are struggling more these days; they're working so they're not going to be stuck in a pub midweek. The government have missed a trick. They should have extended the weekend and left the weekdays alone. I'm not against it, but it doesn't work in places like this."