Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 8 November 2012

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion with Civic Society Representatives and Focus Groups

11:00 am

Mr. Peter O'Brien:

Suppliers, publicans, the National Off-Licence Association, restaurants, hotels and everyone except multiple retailers are in the DIGI group. We represent everyone in the chain except retail multiples.

I accept that the abuse of alcohol has a social cost. We support measures targeted at dealing with alcohol misuse. Most of us are involved in the DrinkAware campaign which is probably the single best resource for helping people to deal with understanding drink. The misuse of alcohol clearly has a social cost.