Mr. Padraic White:

I thank the Chairman and members and welcome the opportunity to appear before the joint committee. I am accompanied by Mr. Jerome White who provides executive support for the Responsible Retailing of Alcohol in Ireland, RRAI, and is no relation of mine.

The code of practice on the display of alcohol in mixed trading premises, effectively, supermarkets and convenience stores, was established in 2009 as an alternative to section 9 of the Intoxicating Liquor Act 2008 which provided for the structural separation of alcohol products from other retail items in mixed trading premises. The case the retailers made at the time was that the cost of physical separation and the ensuing operational costs were prohibitively expensive and that the measure would be impractical to implement. Effectively, we are supporting head 15 of the Bill and the commitments included in the explanatory notes on that head.

The RRAI code and its implementation structure have been agreed with the Departments of Justice and Equality and Health and are quite significant. I will summarise them briefly.

First, the code recognises that alcohol is not an ordinary product and should be displayed and promoted differently from other beverages and food products. It provides that alcohol products should be displayed in one part of the premises and, as far as possible, separate from food. It provides that the advertising of alcohol products within supermarkets should be confined to the alcohol selling area and not aimed at minors, and that it should not glamorise alcohol or seek to encourage excessive consumption. It further provides that advertising in newspapers and magazines by supermarkets should not have more than 25% of the space devoted to alcohol products, that an annual independent audit of compliance with the code should be carried out and that the RRAI should operate a customer complaints mechanism. It also stipulates that the board of the RRAI should appoint an independent chairperson who will submit an annual compliance report to the Minister for Justice and Equality and that the Minister can then decide if the degree of compliance identified in the annual compliance report warrants continuation of the code of practice.

I was appointed as the independent chairperson of the RRAI in 2009 in consultation with the then Minister. I am independent in the sense that I have no background whatever in the alcohol industry or the trade sector. To date, I have submitted six annual compliance reports to the Minister for Justice and Equality. The last published annual compliance report was for the year ending September 2011. The most recent three reports for the years ending September 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively, have not yet been published by the Minister.

Our membership represents the overwhelming majority of supermarkets in the Republic of Ireland, with more than 2,600 stores operating the code of practice. The RRAI has continued to increase its membership. Since the start of 2013, the following retailers have joined: Applegreen; Checkout; Daybreak; Fresh XL; Joyce Group, Galway; JC Savage, Swords; Morton’s, Dublin and Donnybrook Fair, Dublin. Significantly, this total includes more than 1,000 wine-only stores which would not be bound by the structural separation provisions of section 9 of the 2008 Act, were they to be implemented, but which are severely bound by me and the code of practice. This is a significant additional benefit of the code. While there are no precise alcohol share numbers publically available, based on the most recent Kantar Worldpanel measure of the Irish grocery market, we estimate that RRAI members have at least a 95% share of the Irish grocery market which could be taken as indicative of their alcohol share of the mixed trade sector.

As for the degree of compliance, since 2009 those stores operating within the remit of the RRAI have demonstrated a high overall level of compliance with the requirements of the voluntary code.

The overall compliance rates with the agreed criteria have averaged 86.6%, with multiple groups, that is, the larger groups, attaining 93.8% and the convenience stores averaging 80%. We also operate a sanctions policy which is clearly set out in our website,rrai.ie.

I wish to say a little about head 15. As I said, we support the provisions of head 15. The RRAI was engaged in discussions with the previous Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, and his officials and we fully support these proposals. We have consistently supported the replacement of the existing voluntary code of practice in supermarkets with a statutory code with strengthened provisions on the display and sale of alcohol in mixed trade stores under section 17 of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011.

The heads of the Bill, in the explanatory note, provide for a two-year trial period of the statutory code after which there would be an evaluation by the Department of Justice and Equality and the Department Health of its effectiveness prior to any decision to implement section 9. We support the two-year trial period as an appropriate timeframe to determine the effectiveness of the statutory code. Assuming that there is a trial period, throughout that period we will continue to implement and monitor compliance of RRAI members. I add that we have the option of bringing to the notice of the Garda and the courts examples of noteworthy breaches of the code by non-members. We have done that and I have been directly involved in it. One of the main concerns we have is that, after all the lengthy deliberations on the matter and the Cabinet approval of head 15 of the Bill on 3 February 2015, there would be a reduction, modification or elimination of the proposed two-year trial period and its associated provisions.

The stand-alone off-licence sectoris not a member of the RRAI. We have consistently urged the Department of Health to introduce, as recommended in the substance misuse report, an appropriate code for the stand-alone off-licence sector and that it, too, be put on a statutory footing. They are not bound by any code relating to the display and advertising of their alcohol products. It is a matter of regret and puzzlement to me that the Department of Health has given no indication of addressing the need for a code in the stand-alone off-licence sector.

Since the code was introduced on the RRAI in 2009, it has delivered a demonstrable change in how alcohol products are displayed and sold in supermarkets. Gone are the days when displays of alcohol were at two, three, or four different places in a supermarket. Now they are in one location. There is no alcohol in the windows of the supermarkets. Our independent audit indicates a very high degree of compliance on those physical aspects of the display and merchandising of alcohol. These outcomes have been achieved in a transparent manner by means of independent verification at no cost to the State. We are ready to support the statutory code and the evaluation of its effectiveness after a two-year trial period and we look to the committee to support effectively what is in the Bill and the explanatory note.