Last drinks at 1.30 a.m. on night of millennium

Public houses must stop serving drink at 1.30 a.m

Public houses must stop serving drink at 1.30 a.m. on the night of the millennium and must ensure revellers are off the premises by 2 a.m., the Minister for Justice has decided.

Mr O'Donoghue has reversed his earlier commitment to allow pubs remain open through the night until 8.30 a.m. on January 1st, after senior gardai said all-night drinking could lead to disorder.

A spokesman said Mr O'Donoghue would now introduce an amendment to his own Intoxicating Liquor Bill, already at second stage in the Dail, to effect the change of plan. In introducing the 1.30 a.m. closing time he was following the advice of the National Millennium Committee, a spokesman for the Minister said.

A spokesman for the committee, which decides how the millennium should be celebrated officially, said it had advised the Minister to make closing time 1.30 p.m.

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He said another reason for asking Mr O'Donoghue to choose 1.30 a.m. was that few publicans had shown a willingness to open until 8.30 a.m.

The committee also worried that public safety could be compromised if pubs stayed open until early on January 1st, he added. The committee recently met senior gardai, and it is understood they also expressed concern that all-night drinking might lead to disorder, he said.

A spokesman for Mandate, the trade union which represents bar workers in the Dublin area, said it had not looked for the original 8.30 a.m. extension and few of its members wanted to work until that time.

He said the union was holding discussions with the Licensed Vintners' Association (LVA), which represents Dublin publicans, about agreeing a rate for working on millennium night. During these discussions it had become clear that many Dublin publicans would not be opening at all, he said.

Nobody from the LVA was available for comment last night.

Mr John Mansworth, the president of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI), which represents publicans outside Dublin, said he welcomed the decision as his organisation regarded the 8.30 a.m. extension as "totally impractical".

He said individual publicans would make their own decision about whether they would serve drink until 1.30 a.m.