The Government is considering new regulations around drinking alcohol in public, including a ban on the sale of alcohol after certain times, Leo Varadkar has said.
The Tánaiste suggested the current closing hours for off-licences could be curtailed.
“What we could potentially do is ban the sale of all alcohol after a certain point of time in the day,” he told Newstalk.
This comes after Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the phenomenon of “takeaway pints” from pubs was “not on”. It was leading to people gathering and spreading the virus, he said at a briefing on Wednesday.
Mr Varadkar said there was nothing wrong with people buying takeaway alcohol but raised the issue of publicans serving takeaway pints.
It appeared that publicans “kind of get around this” by serving a pint and putting a lid on it and that was “not on,” he said.
New public health regulations around drinking alcohol on the streets would give gardaí more powers of enforcement, he told presenter Pat Kenny.
“We’re certainly going to further enforce the existing ban of people drinking outdoors in public streets,” he said.
He said, however, banning takeaway pints could face legal difficulties and that it could lead to a ban on all takeaway alcohol.
