Pubs may soon have longer opening hours and museums could serve alcohol according to new bill

According to a potential Government bill, pubs may soon have longer opening hours and museums and art galleries may be able to serve alcohol.

The new bill, entitled the General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill 2021, will be drafted by the Minister of State for Civil and Criminal Justice Hildegarde Naughton if given Cabinet approval later today.

It will reportedly seek to repeal the Licensing Acts and the Registration of Clubs Acts in their entirety and replace them with updated laws.

With these new, longer opening hours, the Public Dance Hall Act 1935 may be repealed to allow for cultural entities such as museums and art galleries to serve drinks as well.

Ireland's licensing laws have been a point of contention in recent years, with laws currently mandating earlier opening hours than other European countries such as those in Germany and The Netherlands.

The Government has been considering this for a long time, even going back to 2019 when then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described Ireland's licensing laws as "archaic" at the time.

“One of the weird things is that licensed premises, even if they have stopped serving alcohol, they can’t stay open," he said.

"You know there may be people who still want to stay open and dance and so on and they’re not allowed to, once you stop serving drink you have to close down I think within half an hour or so, so they are really archaic."

Indoor dining recently returned to the country for those fully vaccinated from COVID-19, with almost all restrictions expected to be lifted on October 22.