Drinks firms get 'free advertising' from awnings given to pubs and restaurants

The Oireachtas Committee was meeting as the Government is proposing the continued waiver of the €125 fee that pubs and restaurants must pay for outdoor tables and chairs. File photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Drinks companies are getting “free alcohol advertisements” by providing partitions and awnings with their logos on them for pubs and restaurants offering outdoor dining, an Oireachtas Committee has heard.

Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said such alcohol advertising at businesses that serve outdoors was contrary to the spirit of Government policy and legislation in this area, referring to legislation aimed at curbing such advertising in other forms.

"Is there something that can be done to ensure that doesn't happen?” he asked Minister Darragh O’Brien at the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Mr O'Brien said it was something he would raise at Government and the Oireachtas.

“I suppose over the last two years the thing has been many of the larger drinks manufacturers are providing these awnings, and various other things such as umbrellas for free to businesses that were kind of struggling at the time,” he said.

“But I think we need to look now at how we can actually use a more uniform approach. In some counties, local authorities provided the street furniture and also the awnings and also the partitions. So they’re uniform. And they look better, frankly, as well.” 

The committee was meeting as the Government is proposing the continued waiver of the €125 fee that pubs and restaurants must pay for outdoor tables and chairs.

Outdoor dining at a pub in Dublin. Minister Darragh O’Brien told the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: "In some counties, local authorities provided the street furniture and also the awnings and also the partitions. So they’re uniform. And they look better, frankly, as well.” File photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Introduced as the country was coming out of pandemic restrictions, it was a measure to support businesses at times when they could only serve customers outdoors. The move was backed by TDs and senators across the political spectrum at the meeting.

Mr O’Brien also told the committee that local spaces now being used “more productively” since the pandemic should not be “given back over to cars”.

“I would encourage local authorities, on measures that have been taken through Covid, to look at how best they can be made permanent through the proper processes, improving our public realm,” he said.

But enforcement would also be important against those who hadn’t applied for the proper licence, the minister added.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

Labour housing spokesperson, Rebecca Moynihan, said she welcomed the minister’s comments and said that our cities need to be made “more livable, walkable and bikeable”.

Ms Moynihan said that there’s a wider issue around devolved powers to local government to allow them to set their own bylaws when it comes to traffic management in certain areas, such as allowing outdoor markets.

Mr O’Brien replied that local authorities have “as much devolved powers as they need in this space”.