I move amendment No. 2:—
In page 8, between lines 22 and 23, to insert the following section:
"The Act of 1927 is hereby amended by the insertion after section 12 of the following section:
‘12A. (1) Where on application to a Justice of the District Court in relation to premises to which an on-licence is attached or on the occasion of an application for a new on-licence, the applicant requests the Court to certify that any portion of the premises to which the application relates is a restaurant for the purposes of section 13 of this Act, the Court, if satisfied, in relation to that portion of the premises, after hearing the officer in charge of the Garda Síochána for the licensing area that—
(a) it is structurally adapted for use and bona fide and mainly used as a restaurant, refreshment house or other place for supplying substantial meals to the public,
(b) it does not include a public bar or part of a room in another part of which there is a public bar, and
(c) there is public access to it otherwise than through a public bar,
shall grant to the applicant a certificate (in this section referred to as a limited restaurant certificate) certifying that that portion of the premises is a restaurant for the purposes of section 13 of this Act.
(2) The Court shall not entertain an application for a limited restaurant certificate unless and until satisfied that not less than ten days before the date on which the application is proposed to be made notice in writing of the intention to make the application was given to the officer in charge of the Garda Síochána for the licensing area.
(3) Every limited restaurant certificate shall unless sooner revoked under this section remain in force until the next annual licensing district court for the licensing area.
(4) A Justice of the District Court may, on the application of the officer in charge of the Garda Síochána for the licensing area, at any time revoke a limited restaurant certificate if he is satisfied, after hearing the officer and the holder of the certificate, that the portion of the premises to which the certificate relates has ceased to be structurally adapted for use or to be bona fide or mainly used as a restaurant, refreshment house or other place for the supplying of substantial meals to the public or that it includes a public bar or part of a room in another part of which there is a public bar or that there is no public access to it otherwise than through a public bar.
(5) Every holder of a limited restaurant certificate shall cause the certificate to be displayed prominently in the portion of the premises to which the certificate relates.
(6) Where, in relation to any portion of a licensed premises, a limited restaurant certificate is in force—
(a) the portion of the premises to which the certificate relates shall be deemed, for the purposes of section 13 of this Act, but not otherwise, to be premises which are for the time being a restaurant, and
(b) subsection (1) of section 17 of this Act shall be construed and have effect in relation to a person who is found on those premises at a time specified in the said section 13 at which the consumption of intoxicating liquor is permitted with a meal as if references therein (other than the reference in paragraph (b)) to a licensed premises were references to a public bar in licensed premises.
(7) In this section "public bar" includes any place exclusively or mainly used for the sale and consumption of intoxicating liquor.' "
The amendment proposes to make what I think is a fairly important modification of the law. Under the existing law, hotels and certified restaurants have the right to serve drinks with meals during certain periods outside the ordinary licensing hours. The Bill modifies the law in extending these hours up to midnight on weekdays and up to 10 p.m. on Sunday nights. A premises could be certified as a restaurant, however, only if the Court were satisfied that it was structurally adapted and mainly used as a restaurant. A licensed premises could, therefore, have a fairly extensive restaurant business, quite distinct from a public house business in some other room or rooms, and yet be able to secure a restaurant certificate because it could not be said that the restaurant business was the main business.
On the Committee Stage, some Deputies raised the question whether these facilities could not be extended to public houses which in the normal course of their trade serve substantial meals. I considered this matter carefully and came to the conclusion that, while it would be leaving the way open to evasion of the law to allow drink to be served with a meal at a bar counter outside the ordinary public house hours, it was desirable to allow these facilities to publicans who could set aside a part of their premises as a restaurant. This is a desirable change in the law, and one which will encourage the tendency which has shown itself in recent years in many good class public houses to supply meals at reasonable prices to the benefit of everybody.
I am conscious, of course, of the fact that we are dealing with premises which are primarily public houses, and for that reason I think it essential to insist on certain safeguards. First, the portion of the premises to be certified as restaurant must be distinct from the public bar—it must be in a separate room or rooms and it will not be sufficient to put tables in part of the lounge bar and call that the restaurant. Secondly, there must be access to it otherwise than through the public bar. This does not mean that there may not also be an entrance to it from the bar, but merely that people may be in a position to enter and leave the restaurant without passing through the bar. Thirdly, during the additional hours in which drink may be served with meals, the public bar will be shut down. Finally, the privilege allowed to it will be confined to the serving of drink with meals during the additional hours specified in Section 5 of the Bill; in other words, patrons may not be in a public house with a limited certificate at all after midnight on a week day and after 10 p.m. on Sundays, just as they may not be in the ordinary public house after the ordinary drinking hours, that is, 11 p.m. or 11.30 p.m. on week days and 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. on Sundays.
As Deputies will be aware, in an ordinary licensed restaurant and in a hotel, under the law as it stands and as it will be under the Bill, a person may be on the premises at any hour of the night without committing an offence against the licensing code.