“We have turned the tide of public opinion; it was once a glory for men to boast of what they drank; we have turned that false glory into shame”.
Quote by Fr. Theobald Mathew (Apostle of Temperance 1790-1856) and Minority Fine Gael Government (2018)
Dáil Éireann Bar During Normal Office Hours
The two Bars in Dáil Éireann (one ‘Member’s Bar’ and one Visitors Bar’ and as Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘The Ballad of East and West’, suggests “never the twain shall meet”), are now expected to close following the new sections of the Public Health Alcohol Bill, which will come into operation next Monday.
Same Bill bans Alcohol advertising near schools or play areas, together with new separation rules for the hiding of alcohol products behind delivery pallets, out of the public view, while stocked in Irish retail outlets.
This Public Health Alcohol Bill recently passed through the Dáil, and represents 1,000 days of “Sweat of the brow” effort, hard work and uncivilised debate, undertaken by our glorious elected public representatives.
In mixed retail units, this public health legislation described as “ground-breaking measures” will now force same retail units selling alcohol, to erect barriers hiding their total lawfully held retail products.
The new measures now coming into law will include the prohibition of:-
- Alcohol advertising in public service vehicles, at public transport stops or stations and within 200 metres of a school, crèche, or local authority playgrounds.
- Alcohol advertising in cinemas except around films with an 18 classification or in a licensed premise in a cinema.
- Alcohol advertising in sports areas during events aimed at children.
- Children’s clothing which promotes alcohol.
Store owners who fail to comply with these new advertising regulations could face fines of up to €2,000.
Health Minister Simon Harris is in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary today to avail of a photo opportunity promoting Fine Gael, while officially opening the UL Hospitals Cataract Centre, situated at Nenagh Hospital. Mr Harris claims that this crackdown on advertising and display areas in shops, will ultimately help protect people’s health, and Mummy and Daddy will, in future, no longer return home on Friday nights ‘piss arsed’, to be observed close-up and personal by their adoring teenage children.
Items such as Whiskey Cake; Butter Scotch Ice Cream; Irish Coffee and Guinness Stew will, no doubt, be removed from restaurant menus, and ingredients detailed in such recipes, will be erased from the Internet.
We learn that separate new minimum unit pricing rules for alcohol together with other regulations to allow for cancer warnings on alcohol products, are expected to be brought before government in the coming months.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Mr Leo Varadkar is asking politicians who have not settled their tab at the Dáil bar, that they should do so immediately or else have it deducted from their salary or pension. Some bar bills, know to equal at least €765.23, are outstanding since the year 2000.
Fine Gael Closing Two Dáil Bars
To Health Minister Mr Simon Harris and his Fine Gael Cabinet – Sirs, please keep in mind the words of the American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.”
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