Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While Sinn Féin acknowledges that there are public health arguments behind each of these resolutions - the resolution that increases excise duty on alcohol products and the resolution that increases excise duty on tobacco products - we have been here previously. I do not want to rehearse the arguments that were made last year. The motivation of Government in this regard is not the public health interest of its citizens but to ask people to pay more because they either enjoy a pint at the weekend or because they are addicted to nicotine, and that is the reality of it. We need to call it as it is.

If the Government was motivated by the public health of these individuals, Sinn Féin might look at this in a different light, but that is not the case. The Government is not ring-fencing this money for addiction treatment or to help these individuals access health care that they need. Indeed, in the budget the Government has increased the charges for access to emergency care. On accessing medication, it has increased the drug payment scheme threshold for families who must pay a substantial amount for medication each month. For those who have a medical card, the Government has tripled the prescription charge. If the Government was genuine in this regard then one could look at these measures in a different light, but it is not.

If the Government was serious about tackling public health issues arising from alcohol and tobacco then it would not be stalling the implementation of the recommendations of the national task force. In light of what I have said, this is merely a money grab from citizens without any additional investment to benefit these individuals, either to wean themselves off their addiction to nicotine or to address the alcohol addiction issues in the State. In saying this I am not referring to everybody who goes out at the weekend to enjoy a pint as I myself enjoy a pint from time to time. If the Taoiseach was to come before me today stating that the increased yield of €180 million in excise duty on alcohol products was to be ring-fenced for addiction treatment centres right across the State, then we could be having a very different debate, but that is not what he is planning to do because that is not what is being proposed. This is merely about dipping into the pockets of ordinary people again. In that light, given that the Government is looking not at the health concerns of citizens but at another way of shaking a few extra euro from them, Sinn Féin will not support either of these resolutions.

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