Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The proposed amendment is as Senator Byrne outlined, the same amendment proposed in the Private Members' Valuation Bill 2014, introduced by Deputy Cowen in the other House.. The Private Members' Bill had its Second Stage debate in the Dáil on 4 July 2014. In the course of that debate, the response delivered on behalf of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform pointed out the technical flaws in what was proposed. We acknowledged the intent of the Bill, however, while recognising the technical flaws in it, and we committed to taking a look at it in our Valuation Bill.

We do not believe the proposed amendment would work in practice and I will outline the reason. In summary, once a club is registered under the Registration of Clubs (Ireland) Act 1904, it is registered in its entirety. It is not possible to distinguish between parts of the club where alcohol can be sold and parts where it cannot. The amendment would not give relief to sports clubs as intended. I will propose a separate amendment to Schedule 4 to address this issue.