Professor Frank Murray:

One of the interesting facts that came out of the recent HRB study is that the vast majority of people in Ireland start drinking when they are below the legal age, which is something that does not happen in all countries. Part of that relates to possibly lax attitudes as a society but a large part of it relates to the fact that they are able to get their hands on alcohol. If alcohol is sold in a vast number of outlets, it is much harder to police underage selling and procuring alcohol for minors. That is the reason we would support restricting the number of outlets.