Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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1499. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the forms of identification that can be accepted at the point of sale in hospitality and whether only a garda age card remains acceptable, in accordance with the most up to date form of the Licensing Acts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45017/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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Section 31 of the Intoxicating Liquor Act 1988 prohibits the sale, supply or delivery of alcohol to a person under the age of 18 years. Subsection (4) (as amended) provides an explicit defence to the offences; it states that -

"it shall be a defence for the defendant to prove that the person in respect of whom the charge is brought produced to him or her an age card relating to that person or, if the defendant is charged with permitting another person to sell or deliver intoxicating liquor contrary to either of those subsections, to prove that an age card relating to the person to whom the intoxicating liquor was sold or delivered was produced by that person to that other person."

Section 31 does not preclude the acceptance by a Court of evidence of the production of other forms of identification and age as a defence to a charge under that section. It is, of course, a matter for the Court in any given case to determine what such alternative evidence is admitted and whether it amounts to a defence.