Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Mitchell O'Connor for raising this important matter and acknowledge her long-standing interest in this important social problem. Ireland has a serious problem in that we drink too much alcohol, even if consumption now is falling. Furthermore, when we drink, we tend to binge-drink. Ireland has the second-highest rate of binge-drinking in the world and this pattern of drinking causes significant harm to individuals, their families and society. I will take a moment to mention some other harms that alcohol can cause. It is linked to more than 60 different types of diseases and conditions, including cancer, as Deputy Mitchell O'Connor mentioned, physical injuries and cardiovascular disease. It is a factor in half of all suicides and deliberate self-harm and can be associated with public order offences, road traffic collisions, sexual violence and abuse.

The Health Research Board reported yesterday that alcohol was involved in one of every three poisoning deaths in Ireland in 2012 and remains a substance implicated in most poisonings. Our alcohol problem is significant and decisive and innovative action is needed to address it. In October 2013, a comprehensive and detailed package of measures was approved. The overall objective is to reduce Irish consumption of alcohol from 12 litres of pure alcohol per person per year to 9.1 litres, which is the OECD average, by 2020 and thereby to reduce harms caused by the misuse of alcohol. The key measures in the drafting of the public health (alcohol) Bill will include provisions for minimum unit pricing, restrictions on marketing and advertising, structural separation of alcohol from other products in mixed trading outlets and labelling of alcohol products among other measures.

Minimum unit pricing is a key part of the Government's strategy to deal with alcohol misuse. I believe it is the one measure that will make the most difference most quickly. Minimum unit pricing, MUP, sets a minimum unit price for alcoholic drinks below which alcohol cannot be sold. Under MUP, alcohol which is cheap relative to its strength is increased in price. MUP is able to target cheaper alcohol relative to a strength because the minimum price is determined by and is directly proportional to the amount of pure alcohol contained in the drink. It mainly is aimed at those who are higher risk, such as adolescents and people who have a harmful and hazardous alcohol consumption pattern. It therefore should have only a very marginal effect on moderate drinkers. There is strong and clear scientific evidence that an increase in alcohol prices reduces hazardous drinking and serious alcohol-related problems. My Department, in conjunction with our colleagues in the North, commissioned a health impact assessment from Sheffield University as part of the process of developing a legislative basis for minimum unit pricing. The research studied the impact of different minimum prices on a range of areas, such as health, crime and the economy. Work on developing a framework for the necessary Department of Health legislation is continuing and the heads of the Bill have just been sent to other Departments for observation. All things going to plan, I intend to publish the heads of this Bill in January 2015, allowing some time for the Oireachtas committee to consider them.

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