UK pub chain JD Wetherspoon is ploughing ahead with its plans to open 30 pubs in Ireland, offering pints of beer from €2.50.
That’s despite a promise by Health Minister Leo Varadkar last month to introduce minimum alcohol pricing.
A draft of the Public Health Alcohol Bill is due in January, setting strict limits to the lowest price at which alcohol can be sold.
Wetherspoon has said they’ll fight minimum pricing and that it won’t thwart their expansion.
Eddie Gershon, press officer at Wetherspoon told The Last Word that Wetherspoon is not interested in attracting heavy or binge drinkers and has a zero tolerance approach to drunkenness.
However, FG TD Mary Mitchel O’Connor wants the immediate introduction of Minimum Unit Pricing, not just in off-licences, but also in pubs. She says €2.50 pints should be outlawed.
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