Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

This Bill, if colleagues will excuse the pun, has been doing the rounds in recent days. It appeared in one manifestation but will leave the House in another, not unlike what happens on a Saturday night.

We need to ask ourselves what is the intent of the Bill. Is it to resolve an issue, deal with the problem of alcohol in society or is it a PR exercise by a Minister who has now gone on, to use his own words, to deal with a housing crisis?

Three obvious areas could have been addressed in this Bill — traceability, promotion and advertising of alcohol products and 21 year old people purchasing alcohol in off-licences. The Minister had an opportunity to introduce traceability whereby youngsters under the age of 18 found in possession of alcohol——

See this speech in context