Put down your Guinness, lads.
A sobering new law that takes effect next week targets the center of Ireland’s social life: its 10,000 pubs. Politicians are hoping the Intoxicating Liquor Act of 2003 will reduce heavy drinking, public drunkenness and underage drinking by limiting the number of pints that patrons may drink.
Justice Minister Michael McDowell signed an order to introduce the law yesterday.
Beginning Monday, happy hours and drink promotions will be banned.
The measure also will make it an offense to allow people younger than 18 in pubs after 9 p.m. and will move closing time on Thursdays to 11:30 p.m. from 12:30 a.m.
Irish President Mary McAleese has called her country’s attitude toward drinking “unhealthy” and “sinister.”
Per-capita alcohol consumption increased 49 percent in Ireland between 1989 and 2001, fueled by economic growth. During the period, consumption by people in 10 other European Union countries fell, while alcohol intake rose in three others.
By 2001, Health Minister Michael Martin said, alcohol consumption by the Irish was second only to that of Luxembourgers.
“It is an issue which is becoming more urgent because the rate of alcohol consumption in Ireland is increasing at an alarming rate. With increased wealth in Ireland producing greater disposable incomes, more money is going on drink,” Mr. Martin said in a speech in Dublin earlier this year.
The Irish government began an alcohol-awareness program in February 2001.
The government says it has good reason to target Ireland’s fondness for drink. Alcohol-related problems cost Ireland about $2.7 billion in costs for health care, crime, road accidents and lost productivity, Mr. Martin has said.
The law “demonstrates the determination of the government to urgently address the public-order and public-health worries arising from excessive alcohol consumption,” Mr. McDowell said in a statement.
Public officials also believe the national drinking trend sends the wrong image, and they hope to change the country’s reputation.
They hope that curbing drinking will help reduce rowdy behavior on streets and in bars.
The new law comes less than five months before the government follows New York in banning smoking in pubs, a move aimed at reducing deaths from lung cancer.
About a third of the Irish smoke, the government says, and 41 percent of drinkers smoke, according to the Licensed Vintners Association.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
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