The governments proposals on curbing Alcohol are in a word useless.

Under the provisions of a draft Bill, off-licences would have to close by 10pm each night and gardaí would be allowed to seize alcohol if they suspected someone may breach public order.

Gardaí would also be allowed to test pubs and other outlets by sending in underage people to try to buy drink, in order to expose breaches of the law.

The bill would also make it a statutory requirement for late-opening pubs and nightclubs to have CCTV systems in place.

Where alcohol is on display in supermarkets and convenience stores it would have to be in a structurally separate area and if that was not possible it would have to be sold from behind a counter.

This is going to achieve absolutely nothing. Putting the price of alcohol would do nothing (well put it at 40 quid a pint maybe but throw 3 euro on the price pint nada). We in Ireland as a nation have a drink problem. Being paralytic drunk vomiting on the streets is grand. How many people do not take pride that Ireland tops so many drinking tables, who has not gone to some foreigner sure we Irish can drink ye under the table?

The object of a night out is to get drunk. Doing to useless measure as shutting off-licenses will not change that culture. It will not stop alcohol related abuse in the home and in society, It will not do any of this. Places in Europe without our drink culture have longer opening hours do they have rampant alcohol abuse? No. The point is no law the government is going to pass is going to make

Jesus I was fucking locked last night

Redundant as a perfectly normal and worthy statement for many people. Truly addressing drink culture is going to take more then offies closing at 10. But that law is easy to pass. The real solution which I don’t know what it is  is far harder to do and probably beyond the means of most politicians hence we get “alcohol must be display in structurally separate area” as the solution to all our problems