Ban on selling alcohol in shops urged

I have found lately when out and about that very few younger drinkers particularly females drink beer - they all drink the sugary drinks, wkd and smirnoff mixed drinks etc and personally I think this is part of the problem. They never learned to know their limits by drinking drinks that actually taste of alcohol, they never learned to appreciate beer/guinness even wine - all they taste is sugar so they can keep drinking and drinking. When I first started drinking (Heineken and still drinking it) the closest thing to an alcopop was a 'Snowball' and god knows you wouldn't be caught dead with one of those! These kids don't drink for the taste of it, they don't appreciate the taste of a nice cold beer on a Friday evening after work, they drink to get drunk as quickly as possible without actually having to taste alcohol.
 

I’m inclined to agree with you there.

I also agree that it’s a good idea to have children start appreciating alcohol at home when they are teenagers. A small glass of wine or a small glass of beer with a meal lets them appreciate how the taste of the food and drink complement each other.
 
I've heard that before from a few sources, well mainly my French teachers

French people may drink the same as the Irish and Brits [yes, I know I'm throwing in generalizations]

But they have a few glasses in the evening whereas here it may be nothing for days and days and then huge sessions at the weekend

The amount of alcohol on a weekly basis could be roughly the same when you add it all up
But one is sensible and the other is binge drinking


RonanC said:
I'll have a Bulmers please
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Tipperarys finest
 
I'm going against the general opinion here on this one. I think the sale of alcohol should be banned from supermarkets, petrol stations, and corner shops. I hate to see below cost selling of alcohol. I wish alcohol was sold only in pubs.
 
It's attitude and culture that causes problems, not availability.

In Germany you can buy beer in vending machines.

I worked in the Dublin branch of a Dutch company and we had beer in the canteen. No bother to have a few if if you were working late or have one or three or four before heading out Friday evening.
I've never ever seen an Irish company do this.

Drink is everywhere and no issues

But here we impose an early closing time on offies [lobbying by publicans ], restrictions on when they can sell like after midday on Sundays and responsible drinking ads all over TV
Do you remember holy hour in pubs, maybe showing my age here

Tbh I think if there were twenty four hour licences in Ireland the country may go mad for a few months and then the novelty would wear off and there wouldn't be this binge culture we have
 
Indeed and the main ripoff isn't even alcohol, it's minerals

Five forty in my local for a rock shandy, gwanuptheyardwiththat

Why it'd almost drive you to drink
 
I dont know the answer to the problem,but my God,this country should be shaped like a pint glass at this stage!
It is sickening to see so many young kids locked out of their brains.
One of my teens said that,if they do this when they supposedly have no legal access to alcohol what are they going to be like when they can legally purchase it..
It seems to me that their are off licences selling to people who are underage,and in fact last week I was at a local supermarket and saw some young girls trying to buy some,I said to the young guy at the till,I hope you dont intend to let them buy that,It wasnt received very well.Outside the same shop their was a group of young boys asking older ones to buy them beer..
Out of a class of 30 my daughter said the majority of the kids drink,and they are all around 14/15..Its just crazy.

I know several parents who give the kids a drink,when asked why,they say well sure if I give him two or three cans then he wont be out of his head!

It is a sad reality that it seems to be the norm and not much has changed since my days,in fact it was the same then,so all the stuff to date doesnt seem to have had much of an impact..( not selling it in off-licence after ten for example,what in the name of God does that do,except people stock up earlier!)

I think it starts at home,most of the parents who give their kids drink are in my experience , (Heavier than normal )drinkers themselves.

I have been lucky and my kids( the older ones ) didnt want too drink,they do now,but its nothing like a lot of the young adults who they pal around with,and the younger one who has to put up with a lot of her classmates hangovers/crying/attention seeking/arguing/vomiting etc,has seen this and decided not to go there.

I dont think its a case of "But for the grace of God",its no accident,we have spent their entire lives educating them about drink..at every opportunity we get ,we talk about the consequences of the abuse of alcohol.
I dont think telling them their liver will be damaged when they are older is any use either,it just goes over their heads.
Making it more expensive is a start..
 
One said:
I'm going against the general opinion here on this one. I think the sale of alcohol should be banned from supermarkets, petrol stations, and corner shops. I hate to see below cost selling of alcohol. I wish alcohol was sold only in pubs.
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But then responsible drinkers will suffer because of the irresponsible ones. What about people who can't get out to the pub because of babysitting problems, distance or whatever and would like to unwind with a couple of glasses of wine or a beer on a Friday night?
 

The responsible always suffer because of the irresponsible. This happens in every facet of our society. This has happened throughout history, and will only change when our leaders have an epiphany in the way they think.

We cannot allow the people who run this country to bring in laws which are not based on fact and indepth study but are instead based on the unfounded beliefs of a set of individuals. This is not the road for a modern democracy to take.
 
I dont drink , husband drinks rarely if out. My kids wont see drinking in the home but I am not naive enough to think that will stop them! I can only hope that someday they will figure out that you dont actually need alcohol to relax and have a good time. Shock horror!!
 
Hi june, I think the issue is as you mentioned,kids need to know that you dont need alcohol to relax and have a good time..
I wonder if Irish kids are not the most confident,and thats why so many of them think they need to drink alcohol..
Perhaps working on their confidence would be better than telling them their liver will be affected when they are older/not selling alcohol at certain times etc.
 

Suffer? Come on liaconn a bit of perspective here. Having to go to an off-license to purchase some alcohol can hardly be described as suffering! I'm in favour of banning alcohol sales in anything other than pubs or off-licenses. I think it is far too easy for under age children to buy drink in supermarkets or petrol stations where the attendant simply doesn't care about checking for ID or such. Those in pubs or off-licenses would be far more concerned imho. I agree with the points that it is not just a matter of restricting access, that there should be more done to improve our attitude to alcohol, but personally I have no problem with the idea of buying drink in a pub or off-license if it can make it harder for under age children getting their hands on it.
 

Point is, there is no evidence to back this up! It's just some random 'belief'. Consumption of Alchol in Ireland has dropped for the last four years, even as prices have dropped and availability is better. So if anything the evidence points to the opposite to this ludicrous plan.
 

Exactly. Anyone know someone who gave up smoking because the price went up, advertising was restricted or even the smoking ban in pubs? The only reason I hear people use is for personal health and the various campaigns have probably helped educate people of the damage that smoking does. Trying to change behaviour by telling people where and when they can buy something is ridiculous. They might as well make alcohol illegal if they are so concerned with it.
 

Are you saying that Germans don't abuse alcohol or drink to excess? From my limited experience of Germany as a tourist, its patently clear that their drinking habits are not a whole lot different than ours or the British. Except that many Germans like to drink beer by the litre and there is greater acceptance of drink-driving (not drunk-driving) there than here. If you ever attend a German town or community festival, you will notice that the teenagers keep the off-licences very busy and they're just as capable of drinking in gangs in fields and parks as Irish teenagers are.
 

I would imagine he means suffer in a financial sense, because as soon as we wipe out the supermarket avenue prices will fly up.
I also don't understand where you are getting the idea that ID checking is more prevalent in an off licence over a super market? I was in Tesco the other day and a group of French students were denied the sale of alcohol because they couldn't produce an Irish passport! It was funny to see them try to get their frustrated message across given that they were over 18 and showing French passports. Apparently it is Tesco policy that only Irish or British passports are accepted as ID, so whilst it is a bit mad, we can feel safe that not only is it difficult for underage people to purchase alcohol in a supermarket, young people from other countries also like to get hammered from time to time and it is not our national curse.
 

Fair point shnaek, I admit it is more a belief than anything based in fact. It just stacks up as more logical that cheaper prices would mean easier access to juveniles, and likewise that those whose livelihood is purely to sell alcohol would be more concerned with abiding by the rules than those who sell it as one of thousands of products. All very generalised thinking I admit so it would be interesting to see what studies have been done in this area before reaching any conclusion.
 
micmclo said:
It's attitude and culture that causes problems, not availability.
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Couldnt agree more.

The entire culture here is based around alcohol. In Ireland a wedding is a full days drinking session, and lately Ive noticed people inviting me to weddings and asking me to stay a second night so that we can all go out boozing again!
Christenings are another booze up.
There are people who consider it 'normal' to go out on Friday night and then continue to drink for the entire weekend - punctuated by takeaway food.
If you dont drink people think there is something wrong with you.
I was at a BBQ last summer and one of the guests was from South Africa - she thinks Irish people at a BBQ just want to get the food out of the way so they can carry on drinking.
City centre (any city in the country) on Friday night or Saturday night is just crowds of staggering drunks, falling around the place.
I went out for an xmas do and there were people practically crawling around doing 'the twelve pubs of xmas' - and having a pint in every pub - is anyone going to be in anything but a terrible state after that?
 
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