Mr. Donall O'Keeffe:

I have not studied European norms. We have done comparisons with the United Kingdom. In simple terms, we are not as densely pubbed, so to speak, as the UK. The UK has a deregulated system and, on a per capita basis, there are three times as many pubs in the UK as there are in Ireland. In our view, Ireland is densely pubbed in that there is no shortage of pubs. That is not a matter for debate. Compared with the UK, however, Ireland is less densely pubbed.