Off-licences, particularly those attached to supermarkets, not pubs, are responsible for supplying alcohol to underage drinkers, vintners representatives have told an Oireachtas committee on health.
Underage drinkers would not be found in the majority of pubs in Dublin, Mr Kevin Towey, chairman of the Licensed Vintners' Association (LVA), which represents Dublin publicans, claimed yesterday.
Teenage alcohol abuse had arisen due to a combination of factors, including the lessening of parental responsibility, the loosening of parental control and the rapid growth in the off-licence trade of canned drinks and spirits, according to the LVA.
The Equal Status Act had visited "terrible traumas" upon publicans in trying to keep underage drinkers out of pubs, said the chief executive of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland, Mr Tadgh O'Sullivan.
"I would urge the Oireachtas to restore the right of licensed publicans to protect themselves."
Many pubs had had over-21s or 23s policies to ensure they were not "conned" by underage drinkers, he said.
"The Oireachtas made it illegal. I believe that should be overturned."
The LVA called for "enhanced discretion" to refuse admission "notwithstanding the provisions of the Equal Status Act".
The chairman of the Oireachtas committee which is investigating the high levels of alcohol consumption among young people, Fianna Fáil TD Mr Batt O'Keefe, asked what the vintners' bodies were doing to crack down on "binge-drinking" incentives such as "early-bird" vouchers and topping-up drinks before closing time.
The LVA "actively discouraged" price promotions and would take action against "rogue members" of the trade, Mr Towey said.
Mr O'Sullivan said publicans had unjustly become the focus of blame for drunkenness and violence. "There is never any question of the people who consumed the alcohol and perpetrated the violence being responsible for their own actions."
"It is the culture, not the product, that creates the problem."
