Mr. Donall O'Keeffe:

I expect that lots of people who have wine-on licences will apply and seek to transfer to a restaurant licence under the new licensing regime because a restaurant licence will give them more flexibility in the products they sell. The new restaurant licence, which we support, will allow wine, beer and spirits to be sold so customers can have a cocktail, gin and tonic, wine or beer with their food. That makes sense 100%. The current wine-on licence has a number of restrictions. The premises is not allowed have a bar so it is a table service restaurant venue.

Licence holders can only sell alcohol with food so somebody cannot come in, have a drink and go. He or she must have alcohol with his or her meal. They are not allowed to sell spirits and beer with a wine-on licence. They can get a restaurant certificate that allows them to sell beer but with food. There is no restaurant certificate under the new licensing regime so that will go. We think there are fundamental differences between running a food-led business that sells wine with its food and running a late bar and nightclub that principally sells alcohol late at night. The challenges are different so the notion that this licence would be allowed to trade to 5 a.m. with those restrictions - no bar, wine only and food-led - is nonsense.