Max HeyraudLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan now has the authority to overturn local council licensing decisions, to improve the city’s nightlife and cultural sectors.
This authority enables the mayor to assist venues facing unfair closures or restrictive conditions, ensuring that London’s nightlife economy remains vibrant and resilient; now the question arises: can Dublin do the same?
According to Sky News, under the new pilot scheme, Khan will have the authority to overturn local council licensing decisions in areas deemed strategically important to the nighttime economy. Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the move will mean hospitality businesses have “the conditions to grow” and are not “tied down by unnecessarily burdensome red tape”.
In Ireland, the government has identified similar challenges in the night-time economy. Justice Minister Helen McEntee has proposed reforms to update the country’s antiquated licensing laws, some of which date back to the nineteenth century.
These reforms include requiring pubs to open from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. seven days a week and allowing nightclubs to stay open until 6:00 a.m., with alcohol service available until 5:00 a.m. Furthermore, creating new annual permits for late bars and nightclubs aims to replace the cumbersome Special Exemption Orders previously necessary for extended hours. However, it appears the government is being overly sluggish to implement these changes, and that talk has remained cheap thus far.
The introduction of Night-Time Economy Advisors in nine pilot towns and cities, including Dublin, Cork, and Galway, demonstrates that the government recognises the importance of nighttime reform in creating a sustainable future for the night-time sector, and one would expect such changes to be on Dublin’s Nighttime Economy Adviser Ray O’Donoghue‘s radar. In October of last year, O’Donoughue was quoted as saying, “That will be a slow change, but I see shoots of hope.” It appears that he is indeed moving slowly, but unfortunately, he is at the mercy of a lacklustre government that appears to regard culture and nightlife as an afterthought.
If measures like these had been implemented over the last decade in Dublin, you’d have to wonder what the city’s club culture would look like today. Had our heritage venues and club institutions been safeguarded from the hands of developers, landlords, and the forces of late-stage capitalism and gentrification, the story might be very different. Would District 8 still be standing tall in the heart of the Liberties? Could Hangar still be thriving, open close to seven days a week, like in its heyday on the iconic Andrews Lane? The truth is, it’s hard to say how things might have unfolded, especially given how far we’ve drifted from where we could have been. But one thing’s for sure—Dublin’s nightlife and cultural landscape could look a whole lot different today.
