Official figures suggest that Dublin is lagging behind other parts of the State in terms of legal action against those selling alcohol to underage customers, according to a Dublin TD.
The Labour Party spokesman for justice, Mr Joe Costello, called for immediate action from the Minister for Justice and the gardaí, saying huge discrepancies existed across the State in the number of prosecutions, convictions and closure orders obtained for the offence of selling alcohol to underage people.
"Statistics provided to me by the Minister for Justice reveal that in many parts of the country the crackdown on the sale of alcohol to underage persons that was provided for in the intoxicating Liquor Act, simply has not happened," he said.
"In particular, the entire Dublin metropolitan region lags far behind many rural areas in terms of numbers of cases dealt with.
"For example, in Mayo there has clearly been an effort to tackle underage drinking. In the last 2½ years there have been 112 prosecutions, 74 convictions and 53 closure orders on premises selling alcohol to minors.
"Yet in the capital, where teenage drinking is widespread, only 49 prosecutions, 13 convictions and seven closure orders have been issued in the same period."
Mr Costello said this was unacceptable.
"The legislation has been enacted to stop the supply of alcohol to minors and clearly some parts of the country are acting on it. It is up to the gardaí and the Government to explain why they have been blatantly 'selective' in choosing to operate the provisions of this important Act."