Varadkar attends Arthur's Day festivities and slams criticisms

The Tourism Minister has described some of the criticisms of Arthur's Day as "pontification" and an "over-reaction".

Leo Varadkar was speaking after the Diageo event came under fire for promoting drinking.

The company declined to foot the bill for alcohol related illnesses arising from yesterday's events - but did contribute to the costs of extra policing.

Minister Leo Varadkar said that Arthur's Day attracted no more anti-social behaviour than any other music festival or sporting event:

"A lot of people have been pontificating about Arthur's Day I took the opportunity to actually go myself, I went to some of the events last night and I think most people had a very good time," he said.

"There are always going to be a minority of people who don't behave themselves but I don't think we should react in the way that we saw in the last week

"I think there is an over-reaction to it quite frankly