City centre nightclubs to be permitted to open until 6am, according to nightlife campaigners.

The Government is planning a major overhaul of the country’s licensing laws with plans to extend closing times in pubs, bars and nightclubs.

The plan would also make it easier for theatres and galleries to hold events by removing the need for the €400 special exemption orders for the sale of late-night alcohol.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Give us the Night spokesperson Sunnil Sharpe said it is time to move away from set closing times.

“I think, where a nightclub is not causing disturbance to neighbours, I believe they should be able to fix their own times,” he said.

“But we are also realistic. It will take a long time to change the mindset in Ireland.

“I don’t want to put a figure on it but I do feel that, in a city like Dublin – in fact in many areas where it is a good operator and no problems are being caused – I don’t see why a nightclub can’t go to 5am or 6am.”

Give us the Night

Earlier in the show, the Justice Minister Helen McEntee said the plan aims to drag Ireland’s licensing laws into the 21st Century, while boosting tourism and the arts on the way.

Mr Sharpe said the overhaul is “long overdue” and is the result of a 15-year campaign to modernise Ireland’s late-night economy.

He said the country’s relationship with alcohol has changed in the last 20 years – noting that we are now “well-positioned to try this and move in this direction.”

“I have seen the likes of Dublin and Ireland change a lot over the last couple of decades,” he said. “The scenes we used to see in the early 2000s and that kind of time when people would be faceplanted into Dame Street and where alcohol was a much greater problem, it is not to say that that type of behaviour has disappeared but I think we have improved.

“I think it’s more orderly at night and that is a testament to how Gardai have been managing the streets at night as well.”

Responsible

Also on the show, independent councillor Mannix Flynn said the review is “long overdue” but warned that we “have to be very careful” about implemented the changes.

“I don’t see any harm and I have lived in London and many other areas where the economy goes 24-7 but it is just about how you respect the next-door neighbours,” he said.

“I mean, certainly, I don’t want to see the whole country turn into an early morning house or a hipster hell basically where you have these zones where you end up with kind of a Temple Bar scenario, although Temple Bar is fairly well managed.

“It is about manageability and it is about moving forward in a responsible manner.”

Investment

He said any changes to licensing laws have to go hand in hand with increased investment in emergency services and public amenities.

“You have to have manage these situations and you have to manage them really well,” he said.

“Again you have to have public lavatories, you have to have ambulances, fire brigades, you have to have a whole backup – but it works everywhere else.

“It does work in London, it does work in New York, it does work Glasgow, it does work in Liverpool so I don’t see any reason why we can’t make it work here and it is certainly worth a try.”

He warned that we don’t want to “raise a generation that thinks it is all about alcohol and dancing and nightclubs” and called for the changes to be implemented in a cautious and responsible way.

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