Hallowe'en free drink breached promotion rules

A bar breached alcohol promotion rules by featuring a Hallowe’en free drink offer, it was revealed today.

A member of the public complained the “free cocktails for ladies before 10pm” promotion at Gogarty’s Back Lounge Bar in Portarlington last October could encourage irresponsible drinking.

MEAS (Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Society) praised people for bringing incidents to the attention of its Independent Complains Panel.

Fionnuala Sheehan, chief executive, said: “I would encourage people to be willing to highlight any such matters.”

The Panel noted that promotions involving free drinks, or reduced price drinks for a limited period of a day breached MEAS rules.

Gogarty’s claimed to the Panel there was a typographical mistake in the advert, which should have read cocktail instead of cocktails.

It said only one cocktail was given to each lady.