A city centre bar is to introduce a Las Vegas style all-you-can-drink evenings for the promoted cost of €50.

The offer by SIN Theatre in Temple Bar may prove controversial but bar management say it needs to find new ways of overcoming the drop in sales.

The deal will see punters make a €50 payment at door for an "all inclusive" night.

Included in the fee is admission, cloakroom, live entertainment, drinks and a pizza slice on your way home.

According to SIN General Manager Ciaran Gray, the aim is to attract drinkers out of their homes and back into town and it is fully legal.

"The new laws already mean that we're only busy for about two hours a night, so we're hoping this will get people in early and that they'll stay," he said.

Figures from Vintners' associations state that 1,500 pubs have closed nationwide since 2001.

And among the main reasons cited is the high rate of tax on alcohol, continuing growth of home drinking and the overall decline in consumption.

Mr Gray said that he has cleared the idea with gardai and is prepared for any criticisms of the scheme.

"It will absolutely not encourage excessive drinking because we'll be as strict on that as ever.

"We're over-21s and all staff have training in the responsible service of alcohol."

Mr Gray added: "We're really going to up the entertainment side of things as well so that it's not all about drinking."

The move came on the same weekend that another Dublin bar was strongly criticised for offering cut-price drink promotions to patrons wearing fancy dress.

Reduced

The Wicked Wolf pub in Blackrock gave reduced priced drinks including €2 vodka twisters and €3 bottles of Miller or pints of Fosters.

But the Department of Justice said it was concerned that such a promotion could encourage binge-drinking.

Citing the Intoxicating Liquor Act 2003, a spokesperson said that "a licence holder shall not supply intoxicating liquor on the premises at a reduced price during a limited period on any day".

Bar owner Eugene Kenny has defended the idea saying that the price reductions only applied to bottles of Miller.

When asked why the pub was claiming all three as promotional prices, Mr Kenny said it was simply an "advertisement to get people into the pub".

"It is to encourage people to be in fancy dress rather than to binge drink," he said.

- Kevin Doyle