Professor Frank Murray:

On Senator Aideen Hayden's point about taking tax from the poorest, there is a social justice issue in increasing the cost of alcohol and tobacco products because although cigarettes and alcohol are equal opportunity destroyers of health and lives, the greater burden falls on people in poorer socioeconomic groups. The paradox is that even though increases in price will result in people in the poorest socioeconomic groups restricting their intake of alcohol and tobacco while spending the same amounts, their health will be improved. In addition to the fiscal issues, I argue that there are social justice issues. It is possible to generate money effectively, while also serving the community because we will have addressed these social justice issues.

The committee will be aware of the debate in recent years on how we use alcohol and our unhealthy relationship with it. It is said it is part of our culture, but I argue that the abuse we have seen and the doubling of alcohol consumption in the past 50 years are not part of it. These developments have been marketed and manipulated by the alcohol industry. We should be radical about this issue, just as we were in dealing with bituminous fuels and the smoking ban. There is an opportunity for the Oireachtas to create huge benefits for the people, while saving money at the same time. If the Government took radical steps, it would be remembered as the one that did the right thing on alcohol.