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Discussions are taking place within the government amid indications that a crackdown will be introduced against pubs that sell take out drinks.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin will speak later with the Minister of Justice, Helen McEntee.
It is understood that the decision to end the sale of takeaway pints and other alcoholic beverages from pubs could be made quickly.
Follow images on social media of large numbers of people in Dublin city center drinking in the streets.
Any changes to stop the sale of takeout alcohol would require the Health Department to draft new regulations.
The government is indicating that there will have to be an agreement in the Cabinet before this happens.
However, it is being pointed out that most people in government already believe that what happened over the weekend was wrong.
High-level government sources say that what happened Saturday night in some cities cannot be allowed to continue.
Pubs have been allowed to sell takeout drinks at all levels of the government’s Living with Covid-19 plan.
However, some groups of winegrowers have said they never lobbied for the measure to be included.
Last summer, the Licensed Vintners Association wrote to the government requesting that street drinking be banned.
The Irish Vintners Federation warned that innkeepers have no interest in opening “just two weeks over Christmas” before having to close again.
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Earlier, a Dublin innkeeper claimed that if pubs were allowed to reopen, people could socialize in a safe and controlled environment with reduced numbers and this would prevent people from drinking on the streets.
Alan Campbell from the Bankers Bar on Trinity Street said that while An Garda Síochána did a great job of moving people around Dublin for the weekend, it is “an impossible task”.
He told RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne that gardaí could enforce the numbers more easily if people were sitting in pubs. Reopening them “can be done” safely and he said the innkeepers have shown they can run their businesses carefully and successfully.
Campbell said that if pubs are not allowed to reopen, the situation will get worse and people will flock to houses.
“It would be much better if it were in a controlled environment like a pub, restaurant or hotel,” he said.
Campbell said wet pubs have been closed for eight months in Dublin and when pubs serving food were open for 12 weeks during the summer, it didn’t have a major impact on infection rates.
He said the use of hand sanitizer, masks and visors, social distancing and controlled seating bars would not allow a “free for all.”
Leinster House’s Dáil Bar is one of the inns that have been closed since March.
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