Ms Claire-Ann Martyn:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to attend the meeting today. I am from Mountrath, County Laois. The members probably know the town because they will have travelled to Limerick from Dublin. It has been bypassed now so we probably do not see any of the members there anymore, but they are welcome to visit at any time. I will talk about the structural separation for alcohol, but all of the issues raised in terms of rates, town degradation, parking and so forth have affected Mountrath in a big way. The town is now left with probably six or seven functioning businesses, where previously it was very progressive. The town was a bottleneck because there was so much traffic and so many lorries travelling through it. I am talking about rural degeneration. I was born and reared in that town. My parents had a business there since 1950 and reared six children there. There were many families on the street. We all walked to the local school. I returned to take over the business and work in Mountrath. I have three children and they are the only children who walk to school from a street that previously sent 20 or 30 children to school. This is where we see the demise of the local community. I am not telling the members something they do not know, as they know all of this. I applaud what the committee is doing. We will do what we can to help the committee to examine where we can improve the situation.

However, I will discuss structural separation today. Deputies Collins, Cannon and Heydon asked about this. I have a Centra food market. I am not one of the big multiples. I pay my bills and buy my stock. Probably 2% of my sales would be alcohol. As a retailer, a mother and a member of CSNA, I applaud what the Government is doing to try to change the thinking about alcohol, especially the abuse of alcohol. We are 100% behind changing attitudes to alcohol in Ireland, particularly because I have children and a retail outlet. I see what can happen. However, we strongly oppose section 20. Deputy Cannon might not be 100% opposed to that section-----