A ban on the sale of shots in nightclubs and bars is needed to control the late-night "madness and noise," according to Cllr Mannix Flynn.
In August, the city of Adelaide in Australia announced a ban on the serving of shots after 2am, to crack down on drunken brawls and late-night violence.
As cities across Ireland prepare for the proposed extension of late-night opening hours until 6am, Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn has called on the State to consider implementing similar bans for Irish nightlife.
Speaking to The Pat Kenny Show, Cllr Flynn said the ban would keep people safe in Ireland's "monoculture of alcohol".
"We really have to mature here and grow up – our youth are stuck in this dreadful quagmire," he said.
"We've already got late-night bars and the likes of Harcourt Street and Camden Street can be a terrible mess.
"It's absolutely sad to see the amount of people inebriated, drunk, out of their minds, twisted, locked, falling from one end of the place to the next."
Drinking culture
Cllr Flynn said Ireland needs to "lead by example" by banning late-night shots.
"We got rid of the Brits a bit, we got rid of the institution of the Church, and somewhere handed it over to the drink industry," he said. "We need to be very careful here."
"Shots, particularly around young, vulnerable women ... [nightclubs are] throwing alcohol at people, making it look glamorous, and at the end of the evening, the ambulance, the fire brigades, the A&E, the prisons, the Garda Siochána – our emergency services are stretched to the limit.
"The State is there to protect us; the law is there to protect us.
"We know the catastrophe that's on our streets at the moment. We've seen the violence. We see the decimation on our streets."
Licensing laws
Alcohol Action Ireland CEO Sheila Gilheaney said we need a proper study of the impact extended opening hours could have before bringing them in.
"It's not a given yet, these are only proposals, and in fact, what really needs to be done is a health impact assessment," she said.
"Before progressing any further with proposals to extend licencing hours, we should carry [that] out, we should look at what the additional costs going to be on our EDs, on our Gardaí, on street-cleaning, on public transport, and cost these out properly."
Harm
Ms Gilheaney said in Amsterdam, for every additional hour of licensing opening hours, there was a 34% increase in alcohol-related injuries.
"We have evidence from multiple jurisdictions, all of which say the same thing – when you extend licensing hours you extend licensing sales, and therefore you increase the level of harm alcohol can cause," she said.
"We can see the concentration of resources that have been put into the deaths on our roads ... but we're not putting the same level of attention on something that really can, and really does cause massive problems.
"The provision is the availability, is the opening hours, the marketing and the pricing that goes around it that actually are the areas where you can make the most difference."
