Mr. Peter O'Brien:

I thank everybody for their passionate interest in our industry, which is great. I feel that I am sitting between the two acceptable faces. I am passionate about the drinks industry and what we do. If Arthur Guinness had sat here 235 years ago, he might have been the Marie Byrne of his day. He would have probably made a number of the same points.

This is a very complex area. I think it is unfair of people to suggest that we do not take the issue seriously and that we have not taken the issue seriously. We talk at great length of the impact of drink. We need to recognise that 92,000 people work in this industry. They are exactly the same as the other people sitting around this table. We are the same people as the members. We are not some bunch who sit in a corner with the intention to wreak havoc on Ireland. We are the brothers, sister, fathers - the same as everybody else. We have families and face the same issues. We try to do the best with our own kids. We are not sitting here and saying we will make the situation really bad. It is important to recognise that.

I welcome all of the positive support for the pub. The drinks industry group represents all the publicans in Ireland. It is absolutely fantastic. I would encourage everybody in this room to continue to promote the pub as a place.

We talked about the tourism offering. We have played a significant role in tourism. All of the drinks companies have visitor centres offering massive tourism opportunities. The Guinness Storehouse, as most know, is the largest visitor attraction in Ireland. Now there is the Jameson distillery, Midleton whiskey tour and Liberties whiskey and many others. I am sure Irish whiskey will be a major success.

If I have an opportunity to make a request of the agencies, this committee, or the tourism authorities, I would ask them to note the tourism bodies in Ireland have air-brushed the pub out of all of their advertising. They have decided somehow or other that alcohol is bad and not to do it. From the Fáilte Ireland statistics, the No. 1 reason that people come to Ireland is to listen to music in a pub and the No. 3 reason is to drink a pint of Guinness in the pub. The No. 1 reason they do not like coming to Ireland is the price of alcohol. It is a very complex area and we need to look at it. The pub is a fantastic offering. All of the tourists who visit our pubs are responsible drinkers. They do not come to our pubs to sit and get drunk, they come to enjoy our products.

On the wider issue of alcohol. This is a growing industry because we are finding that people such as Ms Byrne and others are creating great export opportunities. Consumption of alcohol is down by more than 20% in the past ten years. Irish people drink the same as the average of most European countries. In my day job I get to travel around all of Europe. We have the same debate in every country. I think at times we want to build on our worldwide reputation for being drinkers to try to beat ourselves up a little bit more. The same issues apply in all the other countries. It is a very complicated area. We have one of the highest rates of tax on drink in Europe and we are saying we have a major problem. Spain has the lowest tax in Europe and they do not feel they have a similar problem. There is a massive issue related to how we as a society educate people about alcohol and bring people with us. It is very complicated. We want to play our role and we do it passionately and we will continue to do it.

The point about education is very well made and we are in constant discussions with the Department of Education and Skills on finding ways to teach people about alcohol at the appropriate age in schools. We do not do that and I think we should do it.

The accident and emergency service was mentioned. I spent a shift in the accident and emergency department in St. James' Hospital. I know what it is like. I have done my 12 hours shift and worked with incredible people. I compliment Professor Patrick Plunkett and his team on the amazing job they do. It is a very complicated area, but it is not young people turning up in the accident and emergency department. It is not one in four drunk people turning up for treatment. When one goes to an accident and emergency department, there is no category that says "alcohol related". As Professor Plunkett would tell the committee, the most important thing is to assess cases for whatever it might be. Alcohol might be a factor, but it might not be a factor. There are a core number of people who are chronically addicted to many substances, including alcohol. They are heavy drinkers and they appear in the Health Research Board report and we need some targeted interventions to help people like that.

It is neither fair nor accurate, however, to paint all drinkers with the same brush and claim that anybody who drinks at all is a binge drinker. Definitions are no more than that and one may agree or disagree with them. According to the World Health Organization definition, a binge drinker is anybody who drinks three pints in a single sitting in any one month. In other words, a person who goes out and spends five hours in a pub and has three drinks, and does the same again the next month, is a binge drinker. I am not saying the WHO is wrong in its definition, but I am saying we must be real about what it actually means and the message we are giving to people. We should, in my view, be focusing on the much smaller percentage of hard core, seriously addicted drinkers and those who might be in the process of getting to that stage. We are passionate about solving the problem of excessive drinking. It is not good for us and it is not good for our industry.

Senator O'Keeffe asked what we would consider an acceptable rate of tax. That is a matter for Government and is not for me to decide. All I know is that we are paying the fourth highest rate in Europe and competitors in many other countries are paying much less than us.