HSE warns of increase in assaults and drink-driving if pub hours extended

Its submission was one from a number of health bodies which cautioned against extending the hours of operation for establishments selling alcohol under The Sale of Alcohol Bill.

Under the bill, intended to be enacted next year, pubs will be allowed to stay open to 12.30am every day while late bars can operate to 2.30am daily. Early closing on Sundays would also come to an end, while nightclubs would be permitted to open until 6am.

The move was backed by the Licensed Vintners Association, which said the reforms would bring licensing into the 21st century, while multiple organisations in the industry had pointed to the need for an overhaul to the current system.

In announcing the move, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said the new measures “aim to support the industry, protect and back our pubs”.

“And it will help people to open a pub where some may have shut, start a venue, a club night or an exhibition space, creating jobs and enriching our culture as they do so,” she said.

Last week, the HSE’s chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry raised concern that the planned extension of pub opening hours could drive up emergency department attendances.

Speaking to reporters the following day, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said he had raised the concerns raised by the HSE at Cabinet but said that Government had to “strike the right balance” between public health and supporting the nighttime economy, which was decimated by the pandemic.

In its submission, the College of Psychiatrists in Ireland said economic and employment-related considerations “should be secondary” to the potential public health and social harms from revisions to the alcohol licensing system.

“On the issue of Covid-related lockdowns, we recognise that pubs and night clubs have borne a particularly severe adverse economic impact,” it said. 

“A licensing system may well not undergo a significant review for another 50 years, so a short-term focus on issues which arose during the lockdowns should not dictate the type of licensing system we are left with for the next generation.” 

The HSE’s Alcohol Programme, meanwhile, said there was “strong international evidence” for a relationship between a higher density of outlets where alcohol is sold and greater social disorder, along with “growing evidence” for its impact on “increasing chronic health harms”.

'Hidden harms'

“Increasing alcohol outlet density also impacts on ‘hidden harms’ to children and young people as well as their alcohol behaviours,” it said.

“The greater exposure that children and young people have to alcohol in their everyday lives, the more likely they are to initiate alcohol at an early age and the more likely they are to experience alcohol health harms including alcohol addiction in later life.” 

The HSE said alcohol was “no ordinary commodity” and its sale “is therefore unlike any other service”.

It said the concept of the "nighttime economy" needs to be broadened and not centred on alcohol, and that "we need to reimagine our collective cultural and entertainment experiences in the context of whole-of-Government commitment to reduce alcohol consumption".

It made 10 recommendations to Government, including a health impact assessment on any proposed reforms, ensuring the legislation does not result in any increase in the physical availability of alcohol, and providing for the regulation of drink deliveries to the home.

It said: “Any extension to the timespan during which alcohol is sold will lead to an increase in alcohol-related harms, particularly assaults and drink-driving incidents. It will also change patterns of drinking, including in the home environment.

“The Sale of Alcohol Bill should not extend the alcohol trading hours for licensed premises in the on-trade and off-trade.”