- Andrea Horan called for an overhaul of licensing laws and joined-up thinking on cultural spaces.
- Horan cited the €250 Special Exemption Order and Licensed Vintners Association concerns over late opening.
- Horan attributed accelerated closures partly to behavioural changes among young people during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Carla Rogers identified housing precarity and workspace affordability as the greatest threats to artist infrastructure.
- Rogers stated that many art spaces lack long-term leases, security of tenancy and refurbishment.
Andrea Horan, an ambassador for this year’s Culture Night has called for an overhaul of licensing laws and joined-up thinking to address concerns over nightlife and cultural spaces in Ireland. Activist and podcaster Andrea Horan shared that the closure of artistic and nightlife venues has left a limited number of spaces available. She pointed to the Licensed Vintners Association position on late opening and the €250 cost of a Special Exemption Order as evidence of pressure on the sector.
Horan cited behavioural changes among young people who became adults during the Covid-19 pandemic as one reason for an acceleration of closures. She says that, as venues shut down, people became used to staying in, young people in their formative years do not attend college campuses or avail of student deals, people became used to scrolling at home and ordering deliveries, and that interactions with real life diminish, with consequences for mental health and online radicalisation. Late night transport, meanwhile, remains sadly absent in Dublin and around the rest of the country.
Carla Rogers of the National Campaign for the Arts stated that housing precarity and the affordability of workspaces present the greatest threats to infrastructure for artists and nightlife. She shared that many art spaces are not purpose-built and that organisations occupying them do so on a short-term basis without long-term leases or security of tenancy and that spaces built 20 or 30 years ago are now in disrepair, in need of refurbishment, leaking and at great risk from climate change.
