The Labour Party, too, will support this motion. The move to allow more outdoor seating and socialising in our towns and cities was born out of necessity during the Covid period but it has been a really welcome development. In my city of Limerick, I have seen how welcome the parklets and outdoor dining in the city centre have been. I have also seen the opposite, where the council has gone in and unilaterally removed some of those parklets. In some cases, they needed to be removed because they were mouldy, decaying and dangerous. In other cases, such as Crew Brewing on Thomas Street, there was no need to remove them. There must be more flexibility in this regard. Like the previous speaker, I question the temporary nature of this legislation. We are coming back here every six months to do this. We need a proper Bill to put the provisions on a proper statutory footing. While this is a relatively small issue, it is symptomatic of the lack of co-ordination and joined-up thinking in the public realm in this country. While we are talking about outdoor dining and seating, I urge the Government to move on legislation to reform licensing laws, particularly in regard to nightclubs. There are only 83 nightclubs left in the country, down from 522 a number of years ago. The overly restrictive nature of our licensing laws is clearly contributing to that. We are not as far on as we think from the curry in Poldark's in Limerick. When I was in my late teens and 20s, there was a lot more availability of places to go. The previous Minister for justice, Deputy McEntee, was going to look at this in 2022 or 2023 but it sort of fell off the legislative priority list. It is really important because our night-time economy is suffering as a result of the number of night-time outlets, including nightclubs, that have closed, with many provincial towns no longer having a nightclub. The places I went to years ago, like, God forbid, Club Mission in Newcastle West and Trinity Rooms in Limerick, are all gone. That night-time scene has really been pared back. We will support the motion but we need a proper legislative framework. We need a Bill that deals with this issue once for all, thereby giving hospitality businesses the certainty they need. I urge the Government to move out of the dark ages when it comes to reform of the licensing law.

Sentiment score: 0.12