Pubs 'must be given right to ban children'

PUBLICANS must be given the legal right to ban children from their premises, the Commission on Liquor Licensing recommended yesterday.

The report also recommends that publicans be allowed ask an adult with children to leave the bar if they were deemed to be staying too long.

The recommendations, which follow a number of controversial rulings by the Equality Authority, come as part of the second report by the body set up by the Government to review the whole area of alcohol sales.

The report was welcomed by Justice Minister Michael McDowell, who said he would continue moves to toughen laws to deal with public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. But he also warned publicans they should make greater use of the age card to curb under-age drinking.

The minister said he hoped to streamline and simplify what he called the morass of laws governing alcohol sales, many of which pre-date the Irish State. He hoped to enact a new set of user-friendly licensing laws within two years, but he said it was too early to change the opening hours, which had been revised in 2000.

Mr McDowell also said the old licensing system had effectively restricted the number of pubs in the larger suburbs, giving rise to so-called superpubs. He said these were frequently too vast to be properly controlled and caused distress to people living near them in some cases. “I would like to see a return to smaller licensed premises serving the needs of local communities,” the minister said.

Mr McDowell said he had also asked Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne to examine why so few bars were closed for under-age breaches in parts of Dublin compared with other places like Mayo.

“I think that is more to do with enforcement policy than it is to do with breaches of the law in Mayo,” the minister said.