Mr. Kevin O'Brien:

The National Off-Licence Association, NOffLA, runs an outstanding course called a responsible trading certificate, RTC. It covers the whole process of how a person actually handles the day-to-day running of the off-licence, covering the areas of law, the issues that people might not understand such as people drinking within 100 m of the store. The staff of the off-licence have to physically police that area. In my case we have to police other retailers because the other retailers are within 100 m of us. We have always a fear that we will be slammed with this. Many of the mixed traders do not understand the law, that they have to police the area outside their premises. We cover the topic of adults purchasing alcohol for minors, how they do it, the recording and maintaining of an incident book and when they should call the Garda. This course equips the staff very well. It is excellent.