Dublin City Council has failed to introduce any prohibitions on the sale of alcohol on St Patrick's Day despite receiving support from the Minister for Justice for the proposal last May.
The campaign to curtail drink sales during daytime hours on St Patrick's Day was led in the run-up to last year's festival by then lord mayor Michael Conaghan.
Mr Conaghan wanted pubs and off-licences not to sell take-out drink before 6pm on March 17th to prevent a recurrence of excessive drinking and violence which, he said, had "spoiled" the previous year's festival.
Off-licence owners were asked to voluntarily keep their businesses closed during the parade. However, their representative group, the National Off Licences Association, said it would not issue such advice to members, adding that they were under no legal obligation to close.
Following the failure of any off-licences to comply with the request, Mr Conaghan, with the backing of the council, wrote to Minister for Justice Michael McDowell seeking extra local authority licensing powers.
In his reply, Mr McDowell said he would be "very receptive" to proposals to allow local authorities to implement "special bylaws" to control the sale of drink in conjunction with public events.
"That would include the St Patrick's Day holiday," he said.
However, the council said yesterday that there had not been any change in the bylaws since last year and it had not sought any change in the run-up to St Patrick's Day.
A spokeswoman for Lord Mayor Catherine Byrne said she would "not be getting involved" in the matter.
"The Lord Mayor said she won't be asking vintners to curtail their hours on St Patrick's Day, but she will be asking the public, it being a family holiday, to act sensibly," the spokeswoman added.
Mr Conaghan said he was disappointed that Ms Byrne had not chosen to continue the campaign to cut the consumption of alcohol, particularly given the support of Mr McDowell.
"I certainly would be invoking what the minister had said . . . Whoever is heading the city council there should always be pressure put on people so that the family ethos of the parade is not eroded."
Mr Conaghan said he hoped the issue of the council's licensing powers would be dealt with in the Minister's new policing arrangements.
