Professor Frank Murray:

Yes. Plus 11 bottles of gin or vodka and 39 bottles of wine. People get into a massive amount of alcohol. That is the average amount. They do not drink what is in just one of those categories but all four put together. If we want to protect the pubs we should not have so many sites selling so much alcohol for so many hours. There is a lot to be said for having greater controls around off-licences.

Within the members' responsibility as legislators and our as members of various organisations trying to reduce harm, we want to try to reduce deaths. Liver disease is a complete outlier in terms of the mortality rate. Death rates from cancer, stroke, heart disease and respiratory disease have fallen in recent years as a result of many activities including better healthcare, the smoking ban and so on. In contrast, the number of deaths due to liver disease has increased dramatically in Ireland and in UK. The biggest single cause of those deaths is liver failure due to alcohol. We are seeing that alcohol places a massive burden on the health service and individuals. In contrast to improving healthcare in other organ diseases, liver failure deaths are continuing to increase dramatically. I would argue that the committee should reconsider the legislation and reduce the availability, in terms of hours and numbers of outlets. Legislators would be listening to what the World Health Organization recommends in terms of evidence-based measures to reduce alcohol harms. If we go the other way and liberalise, we will see an increase in harms. We will be going against the WHO and many other august bodies' recommendations on reducing harms. As a doctor working in a hospital, I appeal to committees' good sense and common sense and their representation of victims of the alcohol industry, to consider that in what they are doing.