Pubs can remain open until 1.00 a.m. throughout the year under a radical shake-up of the licensing laws submitted to the Government by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue.
Government sources yesterday said a decision on whether to accept the Minister's recommendation could be made as early as next week. Work on drafting the Bill to amend existing legislation is expected to begin immediately after Easter and the new measures could be law by the end of the year.
In a separate development, a national identity card scheme designed to combat teenage drinking is to introduced by the end of April.
The system is to be administered by the gardai, and publicans will be required to ask for identification if they suspect a customer is under-age.
Garda Headquarters in Dublin is to issue the cards, which will be dispensed by local gardai to applicants.
Legislation is also to be introduced so publicans will no longer be able to rely on the defence of "reasonable belief" that a person is aged over 18.
The Minister is understood to favour personally scrapping the existence of "summer" and "winter" pub-opening hours in favour of allowing drink to be served until 12.30 a.m., throughout the year.
Under the new arrangements, patrons would have 30 minutes "drinking up" time, bringing closing time to 1 a.m.
Mr O'Donoghue had considered less liberal licensing regimes but rejected these in favour of recommendations for longer trading hours, which he submitted to the Government in the last fortnight.
If approved by Cabinet, the measures would fall exactly in line with the wishes of the Licensed Vintners' Association (LVA), which represents public houses in the Dublin area, as well as the Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI), which speaks for the remaining 6,000 pubs outside the capital.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, is due to attend a Vintners' Federation of Ireland lunch in Cork tomorrow at which the publicans are likely again to lobby for extended opening hours.
According to the VFI, 80 percent of customers of the "the average pub" enter the premises from 9 p.m. on.
It is not clear if the Government intends to press ahead with the abolition of the "holy hour" on Sundays.
Many pubs throughout the State already stay open until 1 a.m. on at least some nights, by availing of special licences, but these must be paid for by the publican.
Pubs in designated areas can also apply for these licences through the courts. Government sources said this remained a complex area of licensing law and one that needed reform.