Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Tá mé ag roinnt ama le mo chomh-bhádóir, an Teachta Eamon Scanlon. I could not fault anything the Deputy said because he took a balanced and reasonable approach to the problem. We must face the reality of the huge damage the over-consumption or abuse of alcohol is causing in our society. Nobody is talking about people who take a social drink. However, the reality is that on every index, no matter which one we look at — crime, illness or accident and emergency units — the abuse of alcohol is one of the primary causes of the problems we face.

People socialising and meeting people is a good thing regardless of whether they drink. However, at all levels of Irish society, and it is not something confined to the young, we have a major problem with alcohol. If we look at the self-inflicted damage it does to individuals, the damage it does to people on a night out, rows, matters mentioned by Deputies, problems caused within families and the huge problems it causes with domestic violence, we get some measure of the problem we are facing.

It is right that we are changing the law which I, obviously, support as a member of the Government. However, I also think that the fundamental thing we must do here is to send signals to people about acceptable behaviour. In other words, the Irish people need to change their attitude towards alcohol. I can never understand the view that one cannot celebrate something, have a good time or go out for a night unless one gets so intoxicated that one cannot go to work the next day. I do not understand why anybody would do that.

As the Deputy said, 28% of injury attendances at accident and emergency departments in hospitals relate to alcohol-related incidents. It is reported that almost two-thirds of those would never have happened if alcohol had not been involved. Everybody talks about the problems in terms of the health service and waiting in hospitals. I remember one Christmas where it became very snowy and everyone was warned to stay at home. I understand that the accident and emergency departments were empty because people were not out and about consuming too much alcohol and getting into trouble.

If we look at the pressure times in hospitals, we can see they are at the weekend when a considerable amount of socialising takes place. I asked about doctor call-outs in a certain rural area. I understand that in many areas, there were very few call-outs for grazes, cuts, knocks and blows on weekdays. Come the weekend, there is a constant stream of call-outs, not for anything fatal but fundamentally because of alcohol.

Therefore, not only do we have to take physical steps, as we are in this Bill, to limit the availability of alcohol in certain ways, we have an even bigger job in changing mindsets, people's attitude towards alcohol and the acceptance of the abuse of alcohol. I look forward to the code of practice in respect of advertising. People say that one cannot ban advertising. Let us see what the code of practice does. The counter argument must always be that people would not spend millions on advertising if it did not sell more of their product. There are one or two advertisements, particularly one, that create an entire scene involving alcohol. One must have alcohol when one is on the way to the party and get more alcohol when one gets there. One then sees at the bottom of the advertisement a little sign telling people to drink responsibly. I do not know who is codding who because while I accept that no drinks company per se sets out to sell alcohol to the point of excess, they very cleverly send the subliminal message in some of these advertisements that unless one is literally drinking from afternoon to night, one has not had a full day.

Therefore, it will be interesting to see how this code of practice works. Will it deal with the problem we face in respect of the glamorising of the abuse of alcohol and change matters in respect of advertisements that give totally the wrong impression? We are talking about desensitisation, creating norms and things that are considered acceptable. Unfortunately for many people in our society, the total abuse of alcohol is considered to be the norm and the abnormal thing is to not get bombed out of one's mind. As long as this attitude persists as a social standard, we will have a major problem.

The other myth we should debunk is the one that the abuse of alcohol is confined to the young. Young people's attitude towards to alcohol is influenced by that of their parents and whether they have seen a reasonable use of alcohol while growing up. We focus too much on this as if the young lived in a parallel universe that had no connection to what they saw or what was around them when they are growing up. Therefore, in trying to tackle this problem, we must confront the issue right across the different age groups.

As Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, my Department has responsibility for the drugs problem. One thing that comes across time and again is the association of alcohol with drug abuse. In many cases, a mixture of legal and illegal drugs is being used. I am no expert on this but I understand that in certain areas, drugs are used with alcohol with literally lethal results. Again, this is part of the culture of not regarding the use of alcohol as a social outlet involving restraint but of having to be literally out of one's mind before one thinks one has had a good night out. I have met professionals who have told me that people with very good careers who had huge prospects in life have had them ruined by one night where they used a combination of alcohol and drugs.

Tá fadhb an-mhór againn sa tír seo leo siúd, agus níl sí ag dul i laghad. Caithfidh muid, mar Oireachtas, díriú ar an gceist seo. Tá ceart againn dlithe a thabhairt isteach a dhéanfaidh i bhfad níos deacra é do dhaoine óga ól a fháil. Ag an am céanna, is cuma cad iad na dlithe a cuirfidh muid i bhfeidhm — mar a bhfuair siad amach i Meiriceá — ní dhéanfaidh siad aon difríocht mura n-athróidh muid dearcadh an phobail. Creidim go bhfuil ról ag an tOireachtas, ní hamháin dlithe a dhéanamh ach iarracht a dhéanamh cur ina luí ar an bpobal nach bhfuil éinne in aghaidh óil, an fhad is nach bhfuil sé ag déanamh dochar don duine féin nó níos tábhachtaí fós, dochar do na daoine timpeall orthu, bíodh siad ina gcónaí in éineacht leo nó cairde leo nó daoine a castar orthu ar an tsráid. Tá mé den tuairim go bhfanann muid amuigh, mar phobal agus mar thír, i bhfad ró-dheireanach san oíche. Deirtear linn nach bhfuil aon am dúnta ar an Mór-Roinn. Tá sin fíor, ach mar sin féin, téann daoine abhaile ag 11 i.n. nó ag an meán oíche. Ní chreideann siad go gcaithfidh siad fanacht go ndúnann chuile áit.

Ach tá nós ag fás in Éirinn, de réir mar a thuigim é, go mbíonn daoine ag ól sa bhaile sula dtéann siad amach. Ansin bíonn siad ag ól sa phub. Nuair a dhúnann an pub, téann siad ar aghaidh go dtí an nightclub. Dá mbeadh áit ar bith oscailte ina dhiaidh sin, rachaidís ann freisin lé n-ól agus le n-ól agus tuilleadh a ól. Téann siad go dtí cuid mhaith de na háiteanna seo mar go bhfuil an t-ól ar fáil. Sílim go gcaithfimid breathnú ar chuile thaobh den cheist seo agus iad a phlé. Má táimid ag caint ar an mbrú atá ar an eacnamaíocht, srl., creidim nach iad na rudaí atá ag tarlú i mbainceanna Mheiriceá an dúshlán is mó roimh na tíre seo. B'fhéidir gurb é an dúshlán is mó atá roimh na tíre seo i láthair na huaire ná an costas airgid agus — níos mó ná sin, an costas sóisialta — atá mí-úsáid alcól ag cur ar dhaoine. Creidim gur céim bheag sa treo ceart atá sa Bhille seo. Táimid ag díriú ar na hathruithe seo agus ag iarraidh aird an phobail a dhíriú orthu. Sílim gur Bille an-mhaith atá anseo. Mar a dúirt an Teachta a labhair romham, fear a bhfuil cáil air a bheith i mbun cúrsaí spóirt agus ag plé le daoine óga, níl anseo ag deireadh an lae ach tús díospóireachta.

I believe this is just the beginning of a dialogue and I hope the people in this House stand up, in all facets of their lives and in all roles they play, to preach moderation. I hope we will try to change the attitudes of our society. Of all the challenges facing us, such as the economic challenges emanating from changes in America, one of the greatest is the total and widespread abuse of alcohol. This is a challenge which is within our own control and for which we can blame no one else.

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