Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As regards the alcohol proposal, I concur with our finance spokesperson, Deputy Michael McGrath, that the emphasis is the wrong way around. There is a fundamental problem with how alcohol is sold in this country. It is having a major impact on our young people. There is not a Deputy in the House who would not agree with me when I say that something has to be done about it. It means our taxation structure must be reorientated in a way that disincentivises the purchase of alcohol in the off-trade sector, particular in large multiples.

The safest place to have a drink now is in a pub. We must re-examine this matter again but the problem is that the public house has been outbid on pricing by other centres. We have youngsters buying big slabs and ending up on the greens. At home, there is no proper measure of what one is drinking, be it wine or spirits. One of the safest places to have a drink, therefore, is in a pub. I am talking about quantity and the public health perspective. The emphasis in the Government's approach is wrong. We had a different approach by putting the emphasis on the off-trade, and particularly trying to counteract the situation where large multiples have become significant players in the sale of alcohol, which was never intended. The taxation proposal before us misses a fundamental opportunity to redress that situation in addition to other proposals.

Our document contained an interesting proposal on tobacco which we received from the Irish Cancer Society and the Irish Heart Foundation. They made the point that the tobacco sector's revenue from a packet of cigarettes has increased from €1 to €1.84 in the decade to 2010. Therefore, despite all the increases in tobacco taxes, the industry itself has increased its take from the consumer over that decade. Essentially, the industry has used the opportunity offered by tax increases on tobacco to increase its own profits.

We have endorsed the proposals of the Irish Heart Foundation and the Irish Cancer Society that tobacco prices should be controlled in the same way as energy prices and taxi fares. With such a change, the proportion of the retail price of tobacco going to the Exchequer would increase. Without imposing hardship on individual smokers, the Exchequer could get a far greater yield if the proposal of the Irish Heart Foundation and the Irish Cancer Society was to be adopted. It could raise in the order of €100 million in the first year and €150 million in subsequent years. The measure that is being proposed today is completely inadequate from a public health perspective. It lacks innovation and a targeted approach which would target the industry and the profit share it garners annually, to such an extent that it has gone from €1 to €1.80 per packet over the past ten years.

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