An adult-only café owner has defended his child-free policy, for allowing adults to spend more quality time with other adults.
Alan Andrews runs The Old Barracks Coffee Roastery and Coffeebar in Tipperary, which has a no-child policy.
A debate has been sparked after an Italian restaurant in the US state of New Jersey banned children under-10.
Nettie's House of Spaghetti explained their new policy in lengthy posts on Facebook and Instagram.
The restaurant defended its position, citing noise levels, lack of space for high chairs, liability issues from running children and "crazy messes" some have left behind.
Alan told Lunchtime Live he actually got the idea from his daughter.
"I set this up because my daughter at the time didn't want to be hanging out where I work, waiting for me to chat to my mates," he said.
"My daughter said, 'Dad are you opening another café? Does that mean we have to hang around while you talk to your friends?'
"Kids don't drink coffee, so [my daughter] didn't want to be hanging around with me while I'm talking to my friends - she wants to be doing her own thing.
"I thought she had a really good point; and I thought that adults need more quality time with other adults.
"There's a natural migration away from pubs, and we need that safe social space that isn't the pub environment - isn't work and isn't home."
'Very difficult to relax'
Alan said this was also apparent when a friend of his was suffering from depression in 2018.
"We tried to go to have an adult chat... and we went to a nearby coffee shop," he said.
"The noise - for him, when he was trying to deal with his emotions and he was anxious - he actually couldn't deal with the environment.
"He found it very difficult to relax and be calm and be able to talk to me; so I really felt that this was something that we had to create".
Fresh coffee served for breakfastAlan said people with children are welcome, but they can't stay.
"We're not going to not serve someone because they arrive with kids," he said.
"We'll always serve them, but we just advise them that the policy is there for a reason so everybody can enjoy the coffee experience.
"They can take it away."
Asked if there was any pushback to the policy, he said this is a business decision.
"Sometimes even the comments that we get online, it's how vociferous some people can be about how I want to run my business and what I want to provide for the customer," he said.
"We would have got a lot of comments at the start - they would have been completely overshadowed by the amount of customers we received - but we would have got a lot of people thinking that we were anti-children and anti-family.
"I'm just disappointed that nobody else has followed us.
"A lot of restaurants don't have kids menus, they don't provide high chairs, and they're just not honest to say 'We don't want children'," he added.
'I don't think we're there yet'
Sarah in Wicklow said she does not believe we are in the place for adult-only establishments.
"I suppose if people have babysitters and have childcare they can avail of it," she said.
"I'm always kind of having children with me all the time, so I wouldn't be in a position to go for a coffee without them.
"I suppose there is a market for it, but then obviously people aren't taking to it as well if there's people complaining and giving out to him.
"I'd say we're very divided on it, I don't think we're there yet," she added.
Listen back to the full segment below:
