A pub in North Dublin has apologised for advertising a ‘Welfare Wednesday’ drinks promotion after it was criticised for being “irresponsible” by the Tánaiste Joan Burton.

In a press release, owner of the Blacker pub Liz Delaney said the event did not intend to cause offence. Last night, it was forced to remove a Department of Social protection logo from the poster – which offered cut-price booze for drinkers "on presentation of a social welfare card or bus pass' on Wednesdays.

The statement read: "We would like to take this opportunity to clarify our intentions with our recent promotion and put it on the record that at no stage were we ever trying to encourage binge drinking or irresponsible behaviour.

"It was never our intention to offend or upset anybody. We would also like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologise for any offence we might have caused to anyone."

The statement, also published on the bar's Facebook page, continued: "We operate in a high unemployment area and we wanted to give people the opportunity to have a drink and socialise with their friends.

"We feel that the local pub is an integral part of Irish Society and just because you are out of work you should not be excluded from normal social activities."

However, the pub also took the opportunity to hit out at Minister Burton’s comments that the pub was being irresponsible, claiming that the Government subsidises multinational companies to promote below cost selling of alcohol to supermarkets.