The chief executive of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland has called for a temporary ban on off licence sales in a bid to stop the spread of coronavirus.
It was revealed yesterday that there are 392 active outbreaks of the deadly bug across the country, with 252 linked to gatherings in private houses.
VFI chief executive Padraig Cribben has called for restrictions on the sale of alcohol in supermarkets and off licences to be put in place in a bid to stop the spread of the disease and avoid another lockdown.
“If house parties are the problem in the spread of the disease, you’ve got to go back and say, what’s fuelling the house parties?" he told Newstalk Breakfast.
"And what’s fuelling the house parties is the cheap alcohol out of supermarkets.
“You’ve got to do one of two things in relation to that. You’ve got to either bring in the minimum unit pricing, that’s already on our statute books … that’s one option.
"The second option, which is a lot less palatable maybe for a lot of people, is that if we’re in such a bind, if the numbers are increasing at such a rate what we actually need to do is look at whether we should take a period of three weeks and actually stop the sale of alcohol in off licences for that period."
Gardai are set to be given additional powers to shut down pubs that breach COVID-19 guidelines and crack down on house parties.
The Cabinet is meeting today and is expected to approve proposals that will make it an offence to organise or attend a gathering at a private home of more than six people indoors or outdoors.
Gardai will also have the power to shut down a pub that they believe is breaching public health guidelines.
Bars can be shut down either orally or in written format with the approval of a superintendent and owners face fines or imprisonment if they do not comply.
