Ban on selling alcohol in shops urged

S

shnaek

Registered User
Messages
599
From this article in the times:

[broken link removed]

"The committee’s chairman, Fine Gael TD Jerry Buttimer, said members believed the proliferation of outlets for alcohol had led to an increase in consumption."

"Members believed"? Are these people serious? Is this the criteria now behind legislation - that 'members believe'? They must really believe that the Irish people are stupid.
 
I heard this last night and had to laugh. Do people really believe the price and the availability is really the main factor that makes people drink more? SOME people simply have an irresponsible attitude to drink. If they really want to do something constructive, put more resources into education, enforce under age drinking laws, increase penalties for drink related public disturbance offences and increase charges for anyone turning up at an A&E that is over the limit....
 
Another from Jerry:

”… It has become fashionable for people between the ages of 16 and 25 to consume alcohol. I am of the view that pictures of President Obama and Queen Elizabeth ll drinking Guinness send out the wrong message.
Click to expand...

It's really only just become fashionable for the young to consume alcohol?

I note he doesn't mention that based on CSO and Revenue figures. Easiest link is ABFI, they're a drinks industry lobby group but CSO and RC figures should be available.
 
Sunny said:
If they really want to do something constructive, put more resources into education, enforce under age drinking laws, increase penalties for drink related public disturbance offences and increase charges for anyone turning up at an A&E that is over the limit....
Click to expand...

Yeah, but that's hard. Much easier, and headline friendly, to do what they're doing. And, while they're at it, put out the word that the next time a Head of State come to visit, don't use a pint of Guinness as a photo op ?
 
And maybe our wonderful politicians could show the way by not having Dail bars that serve alcohol or at least one that didn't serve cheap subsidised alcohol.
 
They should reduce the legal drinking age to 16 and run campaigns to encourage people to drink in pubs instead of parks and playgrounds. If you learn to drink alcohol in a proper environment then you will learn to respect it a bit more.

Also the Queen didn't actually drink her Guinness so I don't see how refusing to touch the stuff is encouraging people to drink it!
 
DB74 said:
They should reduce the legal drinking age to 16 and run campaigns to encourage people to drink in pubs instead of parks and playgrounds. If you learn to drink alcohol in a proper environment then you will learn to respect it a bit more.
Click to expand...

So, bar staff legally serving 16 year old's double vodkas and red bull all night long will help people learn to respect alcohol?
 
I had this idea that Jerry Buttimer was a Doctor and would have first hand experence of dealing with alcohol abuse, but from doing a quick google search, it turns out he is a secondary school teacher. Maybe he still has first hand experience but in a different way, with students turning up for school with nasty hangovers.
 
RonanC said:
So, bar staff legally serving 16 year old's double vodkas and red bull all night long will help people learn to respect alcohol?
Click to expand...

Fair enough

Maybe it's just my own experience

I started drinking in pubs when I was 16-17. You drank in the local pub where there were people of all ages, men and women. People still got drunk and all that goes with that but generally there wasn't really any muckin around because people just didn't stand for it in the community.

Making alcohol harder for teenagers to obtain doesn't mean that they won't obtain it and abuse it. Sticking them in a park with 24 cans isn't going to help anyone learn to drink responsibly. At least if there is some sort of indirect supervision, you might have some chance.

The legal drinking age is 16 in Germany I believe and AFAIK, they don't have the social problems with teenage drinking that we have.
 
DB74 said:
Fair enough

Maybe it's just my own experience

I started drinking in pubs when I was 16-17. You drank in the local pub where there were people of all ages, men and women. People still got drunk and all that goes with that but generally there wasn't really any muckin around because people just didn't stand for it in the community.

Making alcohol harder for teenagers to obtain doesn't mean that they won't obtain it and abuse it. Sticking them in a park with 24 cans isn't going to help anyone learn to drink responsibly. At least if there is some sort of indirect supervision, you might have some chance.

The legal drinking age is 16 in Germany I believe and AFAIK, they don't have the social problems with teenage drinking that we have.
Click to expand...

Thing is, we cannot compare ourselves to the Germans though. They have a fear of even crossing the road on a red pedestrian light. They are educated from a very young age to respect society in general and laws are enforced no matter how small an offence. We can only really compare ourselves to our nearest neighbour, and they have just as bad a problem with alcohol in society.

We can have all the legislation under the sun but if there is nobody to enforce it, or if we bring our children up to ignore the law, what is the point really? A mother/father sitting at home watching tv while drinking a bottle of savignon blanc or a merlot, and his/her young son or daughter watching him/her gives the message that drinking a bottle of wine while on your own watching tv is fully acceptable. The French and Italians think our wine drinking habits are totally crazy, drinking wine without food wouldnt be acceptable to them.

Fergal Quinn compared the selling of alcohol to the selling of products high in sugar. He has a point. Both will eventually kill you and both will cost the state huge amounts of money in health bills.
 
CSO stats show alchol consumption in Ireland has dropped over the last 4 years. So isn't it then the case that the low cost alchol has caused a reduction in drinking?

Isn't this the sort of stats that the govt trot out all the time when justifying another one of their offensive intrusions into our lives?

But now that the stats don't suit we have 'Members Beliefs' (caps intentional) instead.

The same people that have brought us bankrupt Ireland are now bringing us another load of nonsense instead of fixing the problem we elected them to fix - cronyism and corruption. It's enough to drive you to drink... :(
 
RonanC said:
And nobody would have any money at all, all savings wiped out. No money in ATM's... sounds good doesnt it.
Click to expand...
But it was the politicians who made this choice for us. You were pointing out that the banks were responsible for our bankruptcy. Now you are saying the politicians were right to intervene. That may or may not be the case, but it was the politicians who made this decision, not the banks. It was the politicians who brought us in to the Euro. It was the politicians who failed to competently regulate our finance industry. It was the politicians who inflated our property bubble. Thus it was the politicians, like I said, who are most responsible for our country's bankruptcy. This is what they should now be concentrating on trying to fix, instead of setting up committees intent on directing policy based on a set of collective 'beliefs'.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top