Pubs face loss of benefits if they oppose café bars

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday threw down the gauntlet to the publicans’ lobby, warning if they prevented café bars being introduced, they may also lose the benefits of current licensing arrangements.

Mr McDowell, speaking after the Cabinet meeting in Cork, said that if café bars disappeared, so also would the logic for the present restrictive arrangement where a new licence is only granted when a current one is extinguished, thus controlling the number of pubs in a district.

“I do want to make clear that there is going to be liberalisation of beer and spirits in conjunction with food one way or another,” he declared. “They will have to do some hard thinking on their part if they want to come up with an alternative arrangement.”