I would like to draw the President's attention to a paragraph appearing in to-day's Irish Independent regarding the Licensing Act, which has created a good deal of misunderstanding amongst persons concerned. They would like to know if the President can say whether it is true or not. The paragraph states that a number of people have been told that they could keep their premises open until 11 o'clock as usual, although they got notice earlier in the day to close at 9.30.
LICENSING ACT, 1923.
The only information I can give is that the Licensing Act, as passed by Dáil Eireann last year, is now the law of the land.
Arising out of that statement has the fact that the Governor-General signed that measure been published in Iris Oifigiúil?
I believe not, but it will appear in the next issue.
Then how is anybody to know what the law is?
I take it that that is why Deputy Hughes asked the question. Generally, a day or two after the event has taken place the information is given to Iris Oifigiúil.