Mr. Anthony Foley:

There is not a great deal of research on that. A basic problem, as the Chairman indicated, is that there is a slightly naïve view that if the price of alcohol is pushed up that will solve the problem. However, there has been cross-border shopping with people going abroad. Some 6 million people still go abroad and if the price of alcohol is very expensive here, people will bring back three bottles of whiskey instead of the one bottle they would have brought back previously. The effects of increasing the price of alcohol are complex. A recent effect of the high price of alcohol has been the switch to buying alcohol in the off-licence and home consumption of alcohol. That means people are consuming more alcohol while saving money but they are doing so at home as opposed to in the pub. The price-quantity relationship is more complex than is usually presented.