Ms Christine Smith:

I will respond on two points. First, I understand from the point Senator Quinn made that he felt we were perhaps losing sight of the good of the consumer by wanting to reduce prices. As somebody in business, I would say that the consumer is our eventual customer and we want to keep the consumer happy. It is not in our interests to not please the consumer.

Personally, if I might speak of my family business, we all are passionate about what we do. As a wholesaler, I am in the middle of the chain, but we deal with people somewhat like the company that Mr. Terry Pennington is with, Santa Rita Estates in Chile. Also, we deal with many smaller family producers in France, Spain and Italy which all believe very much in the skills they bring and the expertise they have developed over the years.

I note the encouragement given in the supermarkets to artisan food producers, whether cheese makers, artisan bread makers or those adding value to fish and selling it in a different way. Such artisans are being encouraged, particularly in Ireland, by the multiples. There is one multiple in particular that really has a policy of helping Irish indigenous businesses. If this was not alcohol - the fact that the product with which we deal can be misused and can be abused and it is the misuse and the abuse that leads to the social problems, the medical problems and the health forum - and if it was not misused or abused in the first place, one is dealing with what is a product of agriculture which is part of Ireland's produce base. Wine is a different product. We do not produce it here, but in France the wine business is an important part of the agriculture sector. Those with whom we deal are all passionate about what they do. It is an honest business making a good product. We buy it from them, bring it in and sell it on to the retailers and restaurant owners and it is the consumer who benefits from that, perhaps from the quality of our selection or whatever. I cannot take sitting down the suggestion that we are losing sight of what the consumer wants.

We want to look after the consumer. In regard to what Deputy Kyne said, perhaps I might draw attention to something all members are very familiar with, namely, that NOffLA has worked very hard over a number of years to come up with a programme for responsible selling of alcohol. One does not get that from the multiples. NOffLA does its very best. Given that the industry is regulated by the Government - I would argue not sufficiently regulated - NOffLA definitely plays its part in the responsible sale of alcohol through the training it encourages staff to take, ensuring that in every off-licence that is a member there are a certain number of people who have done the training and are accredited. We should not lose sight of that. We are all here as responsible people. Alcohol gets a bad name because of abuse and misuse. None of us is here to promote crazy consumption to excess; we are here to talk about a business that is our livelihood.