The Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights has heard that there is a serious problem in Ireland with filling stations selling alcohol.
Gordon Holmes, chairman of the Government Alcohol Advisory Committee, said that early morning trading meant garages could sell alcohol at 7.30am in the morning, which his committee wanted to see banned.
He highlighted the discrepancies between special exemption orders where pubs only a few hundred yards apart, particularly in Dublin, had different closing times because different judges disagreed on whether 2am or 2.30am was the appropriate closing time. Mr Holmes said it was important to have a level playing field.
His committee will be recommending test purchasing of alcohol in its report to Government he said, which would involve sometimes using underage people going into establishments to buy drink.
Mr Holmes said this had been done in the past in relation to buying tobacco and said it seemed to be the way forward.
Fine Gael's Charlie Flanagan said Ireland was encouraging people to move away from pubs in their droves to stock up on alcohol in off-licences due to big pricing differences.
He said when you saw publicans in supermarkets with trolleys of bottles of vodka, you could see the extent of the problem.
