Fears over the county’s relationship with alcohol
COUNCILLOR John Joe Culloty has said “there is an elephant in the room” in Ireland when it comes to alcohol.
He was responding to statistics provided by Gardaí at a recent Joint Policing Committee meeting in Cahersiveen, which showed a three per cent increase in public order offences in Kerry from the January-to-September period last year and a 12 per cent increase in drunkenness offences.
The Fianna Fáil Councillor told the meeting that he feels off-licences should not be allowed to sell alcohol to under-21s, a move he feels could reduce the number of people of legal drinking age purchasing alcohol for under-18s.
“The Irish have a blind spot for alcohol, the same as Americans have for guns,” he said. “Cigarette boxes have disgusting pictures on the boxes, and that’s proper order. But cigarettes only harm the person themselves because you can’t smoke inside public spaces anymore.
“And yet, for all the harm alcohol does, we don’t seem to be able to grasp the nettle at all legislation-wise.”
In response to a separate query by Councillor Tom Barry, Superintendent Dan Keane explained that Gardaí encountered problems in Listowel Town on the Friday of the Harvest race festival.
“We put a range of measures in place: we wrote to secondary schools in North Kerry and West Limerick and liaised closely with local vintners and groups. We carried out searches at the racecourse, which proved very successful,” he said. “Up the town afterwards, we did have a lot of youth who were extremely drunk. At 2pm on the day, I saw two young people who were extremely drunk and being assisted by Gardaí.
“We had bus-loads of 15- and 16-year-olds going to an event that has drinking and betting – yet society says that’s okay. And this is a problem everywhere… We controlled the racecourse very well, but next year should see a focus on the town after 7pm.”