Give Us The Night share 40-point proposal on nightlife for the next government
Nightlife advocacy group Give Us The Night have reiterated a 40-point that the new Irish government should make part of its programme.
Give Us The Night’s proposals for the Fianna Fรกil / Fine Gael-majority government which is currently concluding agreement on a new government programme.
Give Us The Night’s recommendations include:
The recommendations fall under the following categories:
- Licensing Laws
- Night-time Economy
- Infrastructure: Creation, Protection and Planning
- Music Culture and Artist Studios
Licensing Laws
- Publish the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2024 within the first 60 days of government.
- Enact within the first 6 months of government.
- Repeal the Public Dance Halls Act 1935.
- Reform nightclub opening hours and amend costs, to bring in line with the EU norm.
- Create a specific yearly Nightclub Permit and/or Night Venue Licence.
- Amend the Theatre Licence for more flexible use of registered cultural venues and arts spaces.
- End the Special Exemption Order system (including monthly fees) as soon as possible for late-night venues.
- For the Government to design a Nightlife Action Plan within the first 6 months of government. Committing enhanced initial resources for policing, public transport and emergency services (if necessary) in time with new licensing laws being enacted, and to review these areas at regular intervals thereafter.
- Move responsibility for licensing policy relating to some night-time economy and cultural venues (including nightclubs) to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media.
- Grant local authorities with a directly elected mayor the power to manage licensing applications and decisions.
Night-time Economy
- Retain the Night-time Economy Unit within the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media. Raise the annual budget to โฌ10 million (currently โฌ2.5 million). To include direct funding for grassroots venues, live venues and nightclubs.
- Maintain a cross departmental working group, with the inclusion of key stakeholders, to further update and develop policy on the night-time economy in Ireland.
- Increase hands-on support and funding from relevant departments. Enhance in particular the role of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
- Encourage new investment into the sector through ambitious, targeted tax incentives for business owners, community groups and investors.
- For the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media and Department of Finance to form a working group for nightclub operators, to assess the future viability of the industry.
- Introduce more 24-hour transport routes in all cities, and consider the creation of a new taxi licence, permitted specifically for peak night-time/weekend use.
- Issue a set amount of free travel fares for registered night-time workers each month. Explore other free travel opportunities for the public to encourage increased footfall into towns and cities at night.
- Reduce the 23% VAT rate on tickets/door admission to 0% for dance events that operate under the current Special Exemption Order system) as part of a three year Nightclub Industry Regeneration period. Return to 9% in line with other cultural venues.
- Fund permanent positions for existing night-time economy advisors, with consideration for other cities and large towns, including Waterford. Explore the possibility of regional advisors (e.g. North-West, Midlands). Based on the learnings from the advisor pilot to date, consider elevating the local authority job role from Grade 7 to Grade 8.
- Fund all types of cultural and entertainment venues, including nightclubs, pubs, theatres, arts centres and cinemas, to upgrade their facilities for increased night-time use. e.g. Building works, retractable seating, soundproofing, sound and lighting improvements. A second strand could fund accessibility infrastructure such as ramps, lifts, railings and designated seating areas.
- Implement noise policies nationwide, including the development of โAgent of Changeโ (it currently exists as โNoise Impactsโ in the Dublin City Development Plan). Also consider the more common use of โDeed of Easementโ for venues that play music as part of their public service.
- Adopt New South Walesโ โEyes Wide Openโ policy whereby buyers and renters of a property in a nightlife area will be furnished with a planning certificate stating the existing role of these venues, entering into a clause that will protect these venues from the noise complaints of new residents.
- Increase significantly the amount of fire prevention officers within local authorities to expedite the use of various types of cultural spaces and night-time economy businesses.
Infrastructure: Creation, Protection and Planning
- Create updated definitions for cultural space(s) within the planning system-taking into consideration daytime, nighttime and multi-purpose uses.
- Undertake an audit of all local authorities to measure Irelandโs offering of cultural space infrastructure. Following this, the State should calculate a minimum recommended amount of cultural space that citizens should have access to, similar to how recommended accessible green space is fixed.
- Fund new models to deliver arts infrastructure, modelled on London’s Creative
- Land Trust and San Francisco’s CAST. Adopt a “for creatives by creatives” approach to such a model, with significant seed funding by the State.
- Create an โat riskโ register of arts, cultural and entertainment spaces that are in danger of closure. Where appropriate, these spaces could be eligible for associated State funding and protection.
- Grant the Arts Minister greater power to place protection orders on cultural spaces/venues of significance, deemed to be at risk due to redevelopment.
- Establish a โprotected useโ cultural venues register. For example, Bewleyโs on Grafton Street in Dublin has had its use as a cafรฉ protected within an
- Architectural Conservation Area (ACA). This demonstrates a potential tool available to cultural buildings that may also have their cultural use protected.
- This tool should be available to spaces outside of ACAs too.
- Develop artist quarters in urban and rural areas where affordable rented
- accommodation and workspaces for artists will exist together in specified locations.
- The practice of vacant property use should be vastly improved, through greater collaboration between State departments and bodies like the LDA or OPW, but also with property management companies and real estate agents.
- A standalone State-supported body to manage and give affordable access to cultural space could be established. In effect, the LDA, but for culture.
- Apply the 5% community, arts and culture infrastructure requirement for all large-scale developments (over 10,000 square metres) outside of the Dublin City Council area.
- Develop and improve specific arts/culture funding strands within the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) & Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF).
- Welcome and invest in new venue models beyond the arts centre. Champion community-led spaces that are put into more regular ’round-the-clock use. Design specific funding streams for these artist-led event spaces.
Music Culture and Artist Studios
- Allocate a 25% quota to Music under State/local authority delivered artist
- workspaces.
- Recognise the public dancefloor as intangible cultural heritage.
- Identify electronic music as an art-form priority within Arts Council music schemes, including the creation of a specific development plan. To also assess and improve its presence within primary and secondary school music programmes, in liaison with the National Council for Curriculum.
- Encourage creative partnerships between the hospitality sector and arts communities, through funded renovations of space for artists within/above pubs, venues, restaurants, hotels etc.
- Pilot โStudio Above The Shopโ initiatives in city and town centres, particularly within derelict and vacant spaces. Apply a 5% quota of any above-the-shop refurbishment schemes to arts and culture usage.
- Roll out an ambitious delivery of container studios for local artists (including musicians) at destinations across Ireland. Use on rotation for meanwhile use particularly, returning to designated anchor locations if/when necessary.
Give Us The Night
Give Us The Night have been sectoral members of the Governmentโs Night-time Economy Taskforce and Implementation Group (2020 to present), as well as Dublin City Councilโs Arts SPC (2019 to present), Give Us The Night has become a trusted voice on matters relating to Irelandโs night-time economy, nightlife and cultural infrastructure, and provided key input into the 36-action Night-time Economy report (including safety, transport, planning, non-alcoholic options at night, diversification of nightlife) as well as increased influence on policy in Dublin. This resulted in a Noise Impacts (Agent of Change) policy in the Dublin City Development Plan – complimented by a โฌ2 million Noise Mitigation Grant Scheme for venues, another forward-thinking proposal of the campaign that became a successful national funding stream.
Amongst other schemes that it provided support to, Give Us The Nightโs input into the Night-time Economy Support Scheme (NTESS) led to a โฌ2 million commitment for events in both unlicensed and licensed venues/spaces.
