The new licensing laws that come into effect this week will have little effect on Capital Bars, the quoted group that owns 11 pubs and restaurants in Dublin.

"It is much ado about nothing," according to Mr Liam O'Dwyer, who along with his brother Des owns 46 per cent in the group. "Our experience is that the planners have been resisting pub development in Dublin for some time. The easier availability of licences is not going to have much of an impact in the city," he says.

In recent years, the Corporation's planners have turned down several applications to open new pubs in what were previously retail premises. Capital Bars' own plans to redevelop the Bad Bob's pub and music venue in Temple Bar have been scaled back because the authorities will not allow it increase the size of the original pub.

The extension of trading hours for pubs and night clubs will represent a considerable saving for the group. Under the previous legislation a late licence costing £120 was needed for every occasion that a pub or nightclub wanted to stay open after normal trading hours. "This can cost up to £40,000 a year for a late night venue and represents a considerable cost for a group such as Capital which operates 11 premises in the Dublin area," according to Mr O'Dwyer.

He also predicts that there will be a convergence in the value of city licences and rural licences. A Dublin city centre licence is currently worth in the region of £250,000. Capital Bars recently paid £70,000 for a rural licence in order to be able to open a bar in their new hotel, the Trinity Capital Hotel, which is based in the old Dublin City Fire Station on Pearse Street. The cost of rural licences has gone up considerably in the last six months as many rural publicans, who were considering selling up, waited to see what happened with the new legislation, explained Mr O'Dwyer. A rural licence probably would cost nearer £100,000 now and further increases were likely, he said.