Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I understand the reason for the measure but I have some sympathy for what is being said by Deputy Gilmore. This must be put in the context of an overall budget strategy. If we take the decrease in excise duty on beer, and the decrease in child benefit, this could best be described as a beer for children budget.

The decrease in excise duty on beer together with the decrease in child benefit gives an interesting insight into this Government's warped and exotic value system. Its answer to hard pressed young families who are finding it difficult to make ends meet is straight out of the Marie Antoinette school of politics. With regard to children, the message is to forget the food and milk, let them drink beer.

This is a headline item. The Government's presentation of the reduction in excise duty of 12 cent per pint of beer and cider, 14 cent per half glass of spirits and 60 cent per standard bottle of wine is quite extraordinary. We received a four page summary of the budget in the House today, presumably for ease of reading for Fianna Fáil backbenchers. I found it particularly extraordinary that under the heading "Stimulus measures to create jobs and spur recovery", the most important item is reduced excise duty of 12 cent per pint of beer and cider, 14 cent per half glass of spirits and 60 cent per standard bottle of wine, and a 0.5% cut in the standard rate of VAT. This is the Government's policy on job stimulation. It is beyond belief. The big idea on jobs seems to be to encourage the unemployed to get drunk. The Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach should reveal what comedian was employed to put this document together.

I recall difficulties in the Soviet Union many years ago when the propensity to drink excessive amounts of vodka resulted in President Gorbachev running a campaign to discourage Russian workers from over-indulging in vodka because of the impact it was having on attendance at work, particularly on Monday mornings. Here, however, we have the ancien régime, with a Fianna Fáil-Green Party politburo whose big idea on jobs is to reduce the excise duty on drink and encourage people to get drunk. It is extraordinary.

The Taoiseach made an interesting comment. He said we had high excise duty for health reasons, to discourage drinking. We have a problem in the State with people binge drinking. Yes, we must stop the traffic of alcohol across the Border, something that was stimulated substantially by the increase in VAT from 21% to 21.5% while the British reduced their VAT rate. We know from 1 January, the British are increasing their VAT rate again to 17.5%. It is interesting the Minister for Health and Children is departing now. If there was any health benefit in maintaining a high excise rate on drink, has anyone assessed the detrimental impact on health of reducing the rate? Is the Government's big idea for job stimulus the introduction of a drinkers' charter?

Whatever merit this proposal might have to address the difficulties being experienced by publicans in Border areas, and the difficulty of people shopping for alcohol across the Border, for this to feature as the major and primary job stimulant idea is beyond belief.

The Ceann Comhairle pulled up my colleague when he headed into tourism. The reason he was correct to do so is that this is described as the number one stimulus measure to create jobs and spur recovery, with a little heading to one side of the summary that reads "retail and tourism". Apparently not only do we want to encourage a booze culture, we believe the main attraction for tourists in Ireland is that the beer is cheaper.

We should be getting rid of the travel tax and lowering the rate of VAT for the tourism industry, hotels and restaurants to encourage employment in those areas where businesses are on the verge of collapse. The only policy, however, is to reduce excise on drink. This Government is bankrupt of ideas on how to tackle the jobs crisis. It is so out of touch, it does not deserve to be in power.

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