Mr. Ciaran Fitzgerald:

In the first instance, I want to address the overall issue of how Ireland Inc. best approaches this issue. I accept the point that was well made that there is a need for a collaborative approach. As well as looking at ways in which they have to become leaner and more competitive due to the short-term currency movement, never mind the possibility of a hard or soft Brexit, many companies have been involved in the discussions at European level about the famous stricture that is state aid. It used to be the case in the 1970s and 1980s that if one had a good idea for something constructive and one went to the Government, the Department of Finance was usually blamed for blocking the fact that a good idea could not take place. State aid has become this all-encompassing stricture on practical ways in which one deals with the now, which is that there is a fracture of the European market, one of its biggest members is leaving, a member state that happens to be geographically beyond that member state will be hugely disadvantaged and Europe should not tell us that the rules that apply under normal circumstances should apply now. Unfortunately, one of the issues that arises when we talk to people in the European Commission is that Ireland has not put up its hand and said it wants state aid to change. The first thing that has to happen before we get into what may be done is that Ireland must put up its hand and say we recognise that these are exceptional circumstances.

That is in the generality. With regard to some of the points made on the drinks and alcohol industry, there was a ban on below cost selling in Ireland up until 2006. It lasted from 1987 to 2006. It was abolished by the then Government and the drinks industry has called for the ban to be reintroduced. A ban on below-cost selling was introduced in England and Wales three years ago and has worked very well. It addresses the issue of people buying extremely low-cost alcohol and, more importantly, supermarkets using alcohol as a loss leader whereby one comes in for the cheap beer and the supermarket recovers its revenue on the other products one buys, but clearly it is both socially undesirable and also misleading to consumers and involves all sorts of price bundling. There is a solution to that level of abuse that is addressed by the reintroduction of a ban on below-cost selling.

With regard to that and the overall point about the public health (alcohol) Bill, the proposal is for minimum unit pricing and an Irish-only label when EU labelling regulations are about to come through which are far more constructive. All of those things, plus the proposed restrictions on advertising are imposing costs on business in Ireland that will do absolutely nothing for the consumption of alcohol, which has fallen by 25% in the past 14 years but will put up the cost of doing business in Ireland. In addition to the fact that we have the highest priced alcohol in the EU, it will lead to cross-Border trade. That is very much a Brexit issue. In the round, it comes back to the point that at a strategic level we are speaking to Europe about ways in which it needs to recognise our circumstances. Our credibility in doing that is not enhanced if we are putting up our own costs or refusing to address them.