A letter sent by the proprietor of the Supermacs restaurant in Castlebar to the members of the Castlebar Joint Policing Committee (JPC ), was described as being “nearly contemptuous” by Garda Superintendent Willie Keaveney at a meeting of the JPC this week. The committee was discussing the issue of takeaway closing times concerning an agreement that had been reached with the rest of the takeaway operators in the town to close at 2.30am. However, Supermacs was refusing to sign up to the agreement.
Castlebar Mayor Cllr Ger Deere stated that attempts had been made by the JPC to get a meeting with Pat McDonagh, the owner of Supermacs, to discuss the issue, but had proved unsuccessful to arrange prior to the meeting. Mr McDonagh did send a letter to the members of the committee outlining a number of reasons as to why his premises would not be closing at the time agreed with the other operators. Independent Cllr Michael Kilcoyne told the meeting that he felt Mr McDonagh’s correspondence was “very short and curt”.
Earlier in the meeting Cllr Deere suggested perhaps it was time to introduce a bye-law to force the operators to close at a certain time. However, both Supt Keaveney and Town Clerk Marie Crowley told the meeting that they did not think that a bye-law could be enforced if the operator had planning permission to open 24 hours a day. Ms Crowley added that she could have the council’s legal advisors look into it again if required, and asked members to let her know if they knew of any similar type of bye-law introduced by another local authority in the country.
Senator Paddy Burke asked the superintendent if closing takeaways at a set time would reduce the noise and number of incidents in the town. “If there is no distraction in the town like the takeaway late at night people will go home quicker,” Supt Keaveney responded. “An awful lot of assaults and public order offences take place around them, obviously it’s not the takeaways that are causing them but abuse of alcohol, but if there is nothing to wait around for people will go home quicker.”
Senator Burke also raised the point that closing all the takeaways at a set time could just lead to the problem being moved elsewhere in the town. “We know it’s not the food that’s causing the problems. You can go to New York and see everywhere is open 24 hours a day. But we also have to ask where will the people go when the takeaways will close, will they just move down the forecourt of a 24 hour petrol station which could start selling hot food if the takeaway is closed? We could just be moving the problem.”
