Sir, - The Consumers Association of Ireland are right to call for greater safety standards in nightclubs. The Stardust disaster is still too vivid for this call to be ignored. Despite all the promises, very little appears to have been done since that dreadful night. Crowd control is a joke.
Should pubs not be included? Anyone visiting pubs at weekends will confirm the shoulder to shoulder crush one experiences in most premises. The only place with room to move is behind the bar! Not content with packing them in, publicans recently had the gall to try and charge us more for the privilege of having pints spilled down our backs.
Are pubs regularly checked by safety officers? My own local, on a relatively quiet night, has stools stacked up against the emergency exit. The thinking here is that fires are only likely to happen when the place is full.
Pubs and clubs should be licensed for a maximum number of people on the premises at any one time. This happens abroad. A premises can lose its licence if found to be in breach of its permit. This ensures greater safety standards for its clientele. Compare this with the apparent lack of similar standards that we have here. But why should people's lives in Ireland be put at risk in pubs and clubs because of the uncontrolled greed of their owners? - Yours etc.,
Hazelbrook Road,
Dublin 6.