Ms Claire-Ann Martyn:

Mountrath had approximately 20 pubs when I first returned home. It now has four. We have lost the pub. We have lost the small corner shops apart from the three that remain now. I do not expect that removing section 20 will mean I will have more alcohol sales. I probably will not and I am quite happy with what I have. However, in response to Deputy Heydon, I am concerned about how it will affect us. It will affect me because of the mix I have to offer to the consumer. Somebody referred to the rural base. I draw all of my customers from the rural base. Basically, I have two bases - rural and social welfare. That is the nature of the business in my town. The mix is that when the guy who is working in the timber business up in the wood is going home from work, he calls to my shop. He wants four cans, a loaf of bread, milk, cheese or whatever it is for the sandwiches the following day. He is working all day. If he calls to my store and he wants four cans, he must either be escorted behind a barrier or it must be opened up to give him the cans. He is not going to bother with that experience for shopping. He will say, "This is it". He will probably call to my store between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. but I have lost the mix that he will purchase. It will mean that not only am I not selling the alcohol, I am also not selling the other products so I do not need another young person to do the 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. shift. I cannot afford to pay them if I am not selling the product. That is what would concern me.

There is a second issue with the mix. Let us say Deputy Cannon is on his way home from work. His wife rings and says, "Ciarán, so-and-so rang and they are calling over tonight. Will you pop into Centra and get me two pizzas and a bottle of wine?" Deputy Cannon calls in to do that. He must ask for a bottle of red wine. He cannot go down the aisle and choose it. There is a theatre attached to buying wine. A person browses and says, "Well, I had that Italian before and I did not like it." Instead of that the person will be asked to pull across a curtain and say, "I will take that one." That will remove the pleasant shopping experience which was referred to, in a different context, as walking around in nice floral squares. This is the shopping experience when one goes into the Centra in Mountrath, so that would concern me.

I have another concern. I have space in my store. My contemporaries, Bosco and Gerard, have stores. They have two drops of alcohol in their stores. There is no way they can cordon that off, so it will be curtains and screens. That will prove unworkable for the retailer. I am also concerned about the costs involved. The health and safety issues for somebody who is working behind a closed area in terms of personal injury, slips and falls will increase my insurance costs. That will become untenable for people, so they will not sell alcohol. Subsequently, they will not be able to survive in terms of the mix.

In 2009, the Responsible Retailers of Alcohol in Ireland, RRAI, voluntary code of practice was introduced. All of us who signed up to that have been proven to be responsible retailers of alcohol. That is what I consider myself to be. I am deeply rooted in the community and I know who should not be sold alcohol. I know that on the day of the leaving certificate results, one increases the age to 21. I know the young people.

We do not serve to the kids who are coming in. We do not serve it before 10 o'clock. We have bought into that responsible code of practice. Asking us to put it behind closed doors almost makes it seem as if it is something we should not be selling. It is still a commodity. I appreciate that the committee is under pressure for time. That is where I am coming from.