Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I would like to come at this issue slightly differently. I certainly have no particular truck for the drinks industry as it pumps its products at young people through advertising. I would like to hear a little more detail in this debate about the precise link between advertising and levels of alcohol consumption. To my mind, there were chronic problems of alcohol abuse in the days before there was any advertising. This was often linked to deprivation. We need to discuss these things. I do not make that comment in defence of the drinks industry. Alcohol abuse among any group in society, including young people, is quite a complicated issue.

As I am coming at this from a slightly different angle, I want to know whether the Taoiseach believes it would be worth considering putting extra taxes on the corporate profits of the drinks industry. Is there not a case for that, given that problems related to alcohol abuse have such a huge cost for Irish society at so many different levels?

Setting aside the wider debate on corporation tax, which as the Taoiseach knows I feel is too low, is there not a good case for applying a special levy on the profits of the drinks industry and using that money for rehabilitation programmes, sport, youth services and community services? The conundrum of where to get extra revenue for sports and young people could be solved by directly taxing the enormous profits of the alcohol industry.

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