A SINGLE BILL to replace more than 70 pieces of alcohol-related legislation enacted over two centuries is near completion, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has told the Dáil.

Mr Ahern said the Bill would replace legislation dating back to 1833. “We are bringing forward the Sale of Alcohol Bill, which will be a consolidation Bill. We are in the final throes of dealing with that.” The Minister said “it will replace the Licensing Acts of 1833-2008, the Registration of Clubs Acts 1904-2008 and will merge more than 600 statutory provisions spread over 70 statutes into a single Bill. It will have about 300 sections.”

The Minister was speaking during a debate on the Intoxicating Liquor (National Conference Centre) Bill, which allows the new convention centre on Spencer Dock in Dublin to apply for a licence to sell alcohol. Similar legislation was introduced in 1983 for the National Concert Hall.

Mr Ahern was responding to Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan who questioned the necessity for the legislation and said it highlighted the need to codify alcohol statutes. He estimated that “an intoxicating liquor licensing Bill has been introduced almost every second year since the initial body of law was agreed in 1635. It is important to bring together the entire corpus of liquor licensing legislation.”

Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said it was “astonishing the Minister or some senior official forgot to make provision for a licensing arrangement for the national conference centre”.

Mr Ahern said they had until June 24th to deal with the issue but the Opposition agreed it should be separated from other legislation rather than cause delay. The convention centre is a joint public-private partnership with Spencer Dock Convention Centre Dublin Ltd, which designed, built, financed and will maintain it for 25 years. The State will pay the company €380 million over that time.

Sinn Féin justice spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh said it was odd the State would pay €380 million to Treasury Holdings while also “bailing out” the company through Nama. The Bill passed all stages and now goes to the Seanad.