Mr. Colin Angus:

As well as the different tax rates, there are a few other reasons one might believe that the same level of minimum unit price might have a greater impact in Northern Ireland. Partly, that is to do with where they do their drinking. In the Republic, consumers do more of their drinking in the on-trade - in pubs and restaurants - where alcohol is more expensive anyway and will be almost entirely unaffected by a minimum price. In Northern Ireland, distribution is slightly different. Consumers do more of their drinking at home and more of their total alcohol consumption is potentially affected. They also have a slightly higher baseline rate of alcohol related health harm and they stand to gain slightly more for each incremental reduction in consumption, but the order of magnitude is similar.