Chai Brady
Irish pubs will now be allowed to serve alcohol on Good Friday after the Dáil voted today (Thursday) to lift the ban leaving some campaigners wondering how long the law forcing pubs to close on Christmas Day will remain.
The ban will be lifted before Good Friday, which this year falls on March 30.
Minister of State David Stanton told TDs that “restrictions of the type that we are repealing in this bill are no longer in tune with today’s Ireland”.
He claimed the lifting of the ban would boost Irish tourism.
The bill was first introduced by Senator Billy Lawless, a US-based publican who was appointed a senator by former Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
Both The Iona Institute and the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association (PTAA)campaigned for the law to be retained.
“If we are serious, as a country, about tackling the many problems associated with alcohol misuse, then let us start by protecting the ban on Good Friday and putting our words into action,” said Raymond O’Connor, project co-ordinator of the PTAA.
In that context, “two days out of 365 is not too much to ask”, he said, adding that those two days, Christmas Day and Good Friday, “represent 0.5% of the entire year”.
Meanwhile, research commissioned by The Iona Institute revealed that the public is split almost exactly 50/50 on whether or not the Good Friday drinking laws should change.
The poll of 1,000 people, conducted by Amarach Research, found that 51% of the public supports the move and 49%are against it. Interestingly, opposition to the move is strongest among the youngest age group surveyed, namely the 18-24 year olds. In this age group, opposition rose to 58%.
Women were also more likely to oppose the move. Fifty-four percent of women are against changing the drinking laws on Good Friday while 56% of men support the proposal.
Commenting on the poll, Dr John Murray, Chairman of The Iona Institute said: “Given that the public is evenly divided on the issue of the Good Friday drinking laws, shouldn’t the Government think twice before giving in so completely to the vintners and restaurateurs?
“There are only two days in the year when the pubs close, the other one being Christmas Day. In time will they open on that day too? It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the Good Friday drinking laws are regarded as a soft target because the original motivation for the restrictions was religious, as indeed is the motivation for closing the pubs on Christmas Day.”