Seanad debates

Friday, 4 July 2003

Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003 [ Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil ] : Report and Final Stages.

 

Section 20 was amended slightly to clarify the definition of "reduced price" in the section. As I mentioned here two weeks ago, the aim is to ban "happy hours", but it would not preclude charging higher prices late in the evening or during a special exemption order. The amendment clarifies that the "day concerned", as referred to in subsection (2), is the day beginning at 10.30 a.m. on a weekday or 12.30 p.m. on a Sunday. If a higher price was charged in the early hours of, say, Wednesday morning, it would not constitute an offence to have a lower price in the same premises in the afternoon or evening of that day. If we view a day, as we are bound, as lasting from midnight to midnight, there could have been an unintended consequence that charging more late at night would effectively turn the rest of the day into a "happy hour", which would not be a good idea.

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