Legislation to extend pub and club opening hours quietly shelved
The Intoxicating Liquor Bill had faced resistance from gardaí as well as the Department of Transport.
A bill which would introduce late licensing laws has been quietly shelved, and it is no longer listed as a priority piece of legislation for the Government.
Chief whip Mary Butler has published the Government’s spring legislative agenda containing 21 priority bills.
The Intoxicating Liquor Bill is not included, and is now listed under “all other legislation” for the spring session of the Dáil.
The bill has faced resistance from gardaí as well as the Department of Transport.
Changes were signed off on a draft of the Sale of Alcohol Bill in 2022, but former justice minister Helen McEntee said last year that she proposed to split the two bills.
She said in a parliamentary reply in May: “Firstly, I intend to introduce the Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2024.
“This is a shorter bill to introduce a number of key reforms contained in the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2022 to modernise our licensing system — including the standardisation of opening hours for pubs and off-licences, the introduction of an annual late bar permit and an annual nightclub permit, the inclusion of new grounds of objection ... [and] strengthening of the powers of An Garda Síochána to ensure that public safety and order are maintained”.
The Dáil agenda sees 14 bills — including in regards to guaranteed access to cash, mental health services, and institutional abuse — restored to the Dáil order paper having lapsed due to November’s election.
In a statement, Ms Butler said that the agenda includes “important legislation around updating employment and equality acts, the national cybersecurity bill, licensing of professional home support providers and legislation on housing” as priorities. She said:
"I am determined to work with each minister and their departments in the coming months to ensure that legislation progresses, and that further programme for Government commitments are also prioritised.”
Meanwhile, the Tánaiste will join his international counterparts at the G20 forum this week — including Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
Simon Harris will hold a number of bilateral meetings on the fringe of the forum in South Africa, but it has not been confirmed which countries he will hold discussions with.
However, the Government has said there is no meeting planned with Mr Lavrov.
Separately, the health minister has called for a greater number of consultants to be rostered on in hospitals over the weekends after trolley numbers surged to a two-year high following the St Brigid’s Day bank holiday.
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill brought hospital-by-hospital data to Cabinet, showing over 1,000 more patients were admitted than discharged.
“It is clear in the hospitals for which we obtained initial data that approximately 10% of consultants were rostered — either on-call or on-site. This is not enough,” said Ms MacNeill.
The minister has requested a deeper analysis of hospital consultant rostering in all acute hospitals.
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