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

While one spends a lot of time in this Chamber disagreeing with people, I could not agree more with Deputy Mitchell O'Connor. There is absolutely no doubt but that alcohol is a contributory factor in domestic violence, as well as an excuse for it on some occasions, which is unacceptable. In my previous position as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, much work was put into road safety and even though there has been an increase in the number of deaths on the roads over the past year or two, it has come down from a very high level of more than 600 per annum to approximately 200 per annum at present. This really demonstrates that interventions do work and among those interventions was mandatory alcohol testing, which made a big difference.

On the issue of the shops, I take the Deputy's point. I have no doubt but that large supermarkets and multiples use cheap alcohol as a footfall generator to get more business into their shops and that this probably does have a detrimental impact on smaller stores on main streets. Obviously, however, my responsibility in bringing forward this Bill as Minister for Health is on public health grounds and on those grounds alone.

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