Irish Vintners are once again calling on the Government to end the traditional Good Friday closing of pubs.

With an eye to the Ireland soccer International against Switzerland which takes place in Dublin on that day, March 25, the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) have joined in calling the Good Friday ban as “discriminatory”.

Offering an image of “thousands of tourists wandering around the streets of our cities and towns asking why they can’t go into a pub for a drink”, the LVA chief executive Donall O’Keeffe argued that the figure would be greatly increased by the 2016 centenary celebrations while “we are also going to have up to 50,000 soccer fans in Dublin facing the same problem outside the stadium”.

For his part, the VFI’s Padraig Cribben stressed that “we know many consumers have a drink at home on Good Friday but they should have the option to go out for one if they so choose. For example this year there are hundreds of thousands of fans around the country who may well want to watch the soccer match on television in their local pubs.”

Opposing the move, Senator Rónán Mullen said there is “perhaps a value in keeping Good Friday as a day on which we could reflect on the fact that we haven’t solved our national drink problem”.