Aaron Mulholland, associate director at Tughans in Belfast, writes on the future of the Good Friday ban on alcohol sales in Northern Ireland.

The Republic of Ireland has voted to lift a 90-year ban on the sale of alcohol on Good Friday, an amendment the Licensed Vintners’ Association estimates to be worth about €30 million this year alone.

In Northern Ireland pubs must comply with restricted opening hours over Easter, estimated to cost the local economy in excess of £16 million.

The last number of years have seen increasing media coverage of criticism levied at the current licensing legislation in Northern Ireland and the Assembly’s failure to modernise legislation despite public consultation in 2012.

The 2012 consultation launched by the Department for Social Development (DSD), which has responsibility for alcohol licensing, received over 2,500 responses.

It proposed to permit late opening hours on Thursday/Saturday before Easter Sunday – a proposal met with very strong agreement (83% agree/strongly agree). The Consultation Outcome Report published in December 2013 noted two dominant themes:

Despite this, Easter was subsequently described by DSD in a document setting out key features of a proposed Liquor Licensing Amendment Bill as “a period of special significance in Northern Ireland which is reflected in licensing law by the placing of restrictions on the opening hours for licensed premises”.

Following publication of the report, then Social Development Minister, Nelson McCausland said:

“Many of those who responded to the public consultation argued that the law in Northern Ireland should be brought into line with the law in England and Wales where there are fewer restrictions on the sale of alcohol … I do not believe it is sensible to go down that road”.

Minister McCausland did however concede that the law should be changed to permit extended opening by one hour on the Thursday and Saturday before Easter Sunday.

The modest changes were to be included in a Bill to be taken through the legislative process. However, DSD failed to bring forward a Liquor Licensing Amendment Bill during the Assembly mandate which ended on 30 March 2016. Changes to liquor licensing law then fell to the new Department for Communities (DFC) to consider after May 2016’s assembly election.

A licensing amendment bill was introduced to the Assembly in September 2016 by the then DFC Minister, Paul Givan.

Proposed measures included:

Hospitality Ulster criticised the proposed reforms saying that they did not go far enough. In response, the Minister’s spokeswoman defended the proposals citing the protection of public health and the preservation of public order.

While talks to re-establish the institutions following a year of political impasse recommenced this week, industry can only look on and wonder when our politicians will find time to debate the bread and butter issues.