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Council forms group to monitor alcohol sales

Wednesday, 04 June 2008

Dublin City Council has granted 30 planning permissions for off licences in the Dublin South Central area in the last two and a half years, it has emerged.
In January, Southside People revealed that the city council granted planning permission for 14 off-licences in the Ballyfermot, Kimmage, Crumlin and Coombe areas last year alone.
But new figures show an increase in the number of premises selling alcohol on the Southside.
The figures show that between July 2005 and March 2008, the city council granted a total of 30 planning applications for off-licences within the south central area, which includes Cherry Orchard, Crumlin, Kimmage, Inchicore, Kilmainham, Walkinstown and Merchant’s Quay.
In the Merchant’s Quay area of the city the council granted permission for seven off licences as part of retail units and one full off licence store during the same period.
The figures were issued in reply to a council question asked by local Coombe based councillor John Gallagher (Lab).
The massive expansion in the number of convenience stores, garage forecourts and supermarkets selling alcohol has been blamed in some quarters for the rise in drink-fuelled anti-social activity.
Speaking to Southside People, the director of the Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Society (MEAS), Fionnuala Sheehan, said her organisation was becoming increasingly concerned about the high number of retail outlets and off-licences in certain areas.
“Concern is being communicated to us at MEAS about the increased and expanded and availability of alcohol in the off-trade in Ireland,” she said.
“We have had a quite rapid and significant expansion in the availability of alcohol through a range of off-trade outlets from the supermarkets to the independent off-licence to the convenience store to the garage forecourt.”
The city council has formed an ‘Alcohol and Public Order Working Group’ which has issued recommendations including limiting the number of off-licences and their hours of business.
They also suggest restricting the size of future pubs, refusing permission to extend existing premises and limiting fast food trading hours favouring instead café-bars which would serve food along with alcohol.
For off licences CCTV would be made a mandatory part of planning permission while advertising and the promotion of alcohol in windows would be strictly prohibited.
The public order working group and the joint policing committee have asked that their recommendations be adopted into the development plan.
A spokesman for the National Off Licence Association (NOffLA), Cathal McHugh, has stated that his group would not be opposed to necessary restrictions as long as the were imposed evenly to all off licence premises.
“A lot of these suggestions already exist,” he said. “The council has always had the power to restrict opening hours so I do not see anything new in them.
“However, our main concern is that restrictions on opening hours would have to be applied across the board to be fair to all our members.”

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