Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The Minister of State, Deputy Shortall, and I have held discussions on how we should proceed with regard to this area. While I join the Deputy in praising Mr. White for the work he is doing, I am not in favour of retaining the current voluntary code. We need to do better than that. The choice therefore lies between section 9 or some variant of it, as the Deputy is suggesting, or the statutory code under section 17 of the 2011 Act. I expect to be in a position to seek Government approval for proposals regarding future arrangements in the coming weeks. They are the subject of internal discussions as to how best to proceed.

I am aware of two particular issues we must address. We must try to ensure that we do what is necessary to "de-normalise", if I could put it that way, the purchase of alcohol by young people. We must bring to an end some of the commercial inducements in place that encourage people to purchase and perhaps drink more alcohol than is wise. For example, there are offers to pay for six cans of beer and get another six for free and other inducements. On the other side of the coin, I am also aware that in what is currently a difficult business environment for SMEs, some mixed stores are dependent on alcohol sales and other sales to maintain a reasonable livelihood. Alcohol is purchased as a normal item by many individuals in the community. Many of those stores would not have the financial capacity to restructure in a manner that section 9 envisages. If they had to obtain loans for such restructuring, it would put them under some difficulty. There are balances we need to maintain and we are giving consideration to that in the current deliberations.

See this speech in context