Minister Mr Willie O'Dea said this morning he foresees significant amendments to the laws governing the right of publicans to refuse service.
But he refused to say whether this would mean publicans would have the right to refuse Travellers.
The Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform said the Liquor Licensing Commission was asked last March to propose changes to clarify the laws on refusal generally. He has asked the commission to make this a priority after developments in Westport, Co Mayo, that led to the banning of Travellers from pubs there.
He was speaking on RTÉ this morning in response to a call from the head of the Vintners' Federation, Mr Tadg O'Sullivan, for him to remove the special status for Travellers from the Equal Status Act.
Mr O'Dea said under Section 15 of the Act, publicans have the right to refuse people "under certain circumstances" but that these circumstances are not fully explained and need to be clarified.
He accepted the "world has moved on" since the current legislation was drafted in 1872, even though categories for certain groups to prevent them being discriminated against had since been introduced.
"At the moment, members of the settled community can go into a pub and be refused, without any reason given. We have no redress whatsoever, whereas if you fall into any of the mentioned categories you have a fundamental right to redress and an easy mechanism by which to do so".
"It may be necessary to amend [the Act] to take account of the changes in the liquor licensing laws, but it won’t be weakened in any way," he said. Mr O'Dea said there was no question of seeking to change law in relation to discrimination on the basis of colour or ethnic background.