With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 19 to 21 together.
I assume that the first Question, like the other two, is intended to be read in the context of the provisions of Section 15 of the Intoxicating Liquor Bill.
I do not think that I could be expected to attempt to answer such a question as how many premises could be structurally adapted for use as restaurants, since given sufficient money to spend on the job, it would be difficult to find any premises of any kind or condition which could not be so adapted.
Section 15 is very far from providing that a licence to sell intoxicating liquor with a substantial meal can be got for any restaurant. The requirement that the premises must be structurally adapted for use as a restaurant is clearly only a minor one compared with the requirement that the premises must be bona fide and mainly used, not just for any kind of restaurant business, but for supplying substantial meals of a kind that come within a definition set out in the Bill.
The applicant for the licence would have to satisfy the Circuit Court, on sworn evidence, that his premises was one which qualified—it is not a question of the police having to prove the contrary.
Not only must the main business of the premises be the supply of substantial meals costing at least 5/- but the licence, when granted, would apply only to the serving of drinks with meals of this kind.
While I am not prepared to hazard any guess as to the number of restaurants that now exist or that might come into being which could be shown to the satisfaction of the Circuit Court to be doing a business consisting in the main of the serving of substantial meals costing at least 5/-, I do not think that there is any doubt that the number is and would remain very small.