From Licensing Delays to Late-Night Buses: Inside a Constructive Conversation with Minister Gordon Lyons

Yesterday, 1st October 2025, we met with the Minister for Communities Gordon Lyons to discuss the challenges facing our night time communities and options for moving forward.

Our top priority was to ask when we can expect a response to the independent licensing review, and whilst the Minister was unable to go into too much detail, we were assured this was coming in the next few weeks. With the understanding that the surrender principle issue is complex and will take time to navigate, we emphasised the need to action cultural licensing and easier occasional licensing as soon as possible - two recommendations that were also highlighted in our own 2022 research paper that would vastly improve the current night time landscape. The Department told us they would reach out to us following the publication of their response.

A connected issue raised was Northern Ireland’s problem with creative drain, which the Minister was aware of, pointing to a recent report that stated around 60% of 18-35 year olds had either left or had thought about leaving the country. We then raised the idea of a basic income for artists, similar to the scheme in the Republic of Ireland which has just been successfully extended. The Minister was encouraged by this and said he has already been looking at how something like this could be built into a future arts, culture and heritage fund here. He asked us to send him more case studies on this, which we will be doing.

Lastly, the Minister confirmed that his department is putting funding into the new late-night bus service which we hope to see starting this November. We emphasised the need to trial at least one 3:30am bus during the pilot to reflect closing times.

We want to thank the Minister and the Department for their time yesterday in what we felt was a really positive and helpful discussion.