Professor Frank Murray:

I thank the Senator for his comments. He is absolutely on the money when he refers to the many harms he has seen done through the legal system as we see when we are at work in the hospitals. I commend him on his openness in speaking about it today.

The reason there are restrictions around alcohol is because it is a mind-altering and addictive substance. It is no ordinary commodity. We treat it, and should treat it differently than everything else we sell in retail, in the supermarket for instance. There is a reason for that and that is highly evolved behaviour right around the world. The emphasis on individual responsibility is very much an alcohol industry paradigm because it wants to sell more alcohol and the fewer restrictions there are, unfortunately, the more alcohol is consumed. Restrictions are a constructive thing. It is very difficult to nuance what the Senator is describing there and I say that respectfully. The point that was being made earlier is that we are not talking about not having the night-time economy or culture. We are talking about not having alcohol absolutely at the centre of that. I will make a final comment that links what was said by Senators Ward and Warfield. We have the fourth highest number of pubs, clubs, and bars in the world in Ireland, per capita. The fourth highest so we have plenty of pubs, clubs and bars. With respect, I do not think we need anymore. We may need to look at them differently. If we were to say we would use them more as cultural venues that would be a great thing but as somebody who deals with the downstream consequences of alcohol, I argue we need more restriction and regulation; I am not saying we need prohibition but we need to drive down the amount of alcohol consumed which is harming individuals in society and their families. They are victims of the alcohol industry in my view.