"A Substantial Meal"

Going on all accounts so far, the existing rules about Restaurant Certificates - legal permission for a pub, club or restaurant to serve slightly later, serve beer in the case of a wine licenced restaurant, and some other things - will be applied to pubs that open from June 29th; whether they have a Certificate or not; with pubs effectively operating as restaurants for the three weeks after that.

The most important factor in this is the requirement for you to have had "a substantial meal". This is defined, but not very well in my opinion, in the Intoxicating Liquor Act, 1962, section 9, as follows:

"(a) the meal is such as might be expected to be served as a main midday or main evening meal or as a main course at either such meal, and

(b) the meal is of a kind for which—

(i) having regard to the prices charged for meals in the premises at times other than prohibited hours, or

(ii) if meals are not normally served in the premises, having regard to all the circumstances,

it would be reasonable to charge a sum that is not less than—

(I) the sum (if any) that for the time being stands fixed under subsection (2) of this section, or

(II) if no sum stands fixed for the time being under the said subsection (2), five shillings."

Now, there are worlds of arguments to be had as to what defines a main midday meal; and particularly in todays world of tasting menus, what defines a main course. Plenty of places could legitimately serve a very small, but very expensive item that is equivalent to a course on a multi-course menu and claim it meets the requirements.

Five shillings is 25p, or 31c in current day terms. This would be equivalent to approximately €6 in direct inflation terms - but these don't apply here. Instead, that figure has been updated twice by Ministerial order.

The first update in 1979 changed it to £2, €2.54 - equivalent to approximately €11 today; and the second in 2003 to the current €9, which would also be equivalent to approximately €11 today - which suggests that the 2003 update was done on a pure inflation basis, and not with an traditional increase in value like the 1979 one had.

This has become so close to irrelevant in recent years - there days of nightclubs operating on restaurant licences are long gone - that its unlikely an inflationary increase would ever have been considered; and its also so small of an increase that it would have very little effect. But should Phase 4 have to be pushed out for any reason, and there's an element of piss-taking going on, a Ministerial Order to whack this up to €15 or €20 would not be completely out of the question.