Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

------and he should sit down at the Cabinet table and tell his fellow Ministers to stop attacking those who are selling drink and those who are trying to provide jobs in this country and, rather, see if we can do something to turn it around. A person whose insurance has increased from €80,000 to €230,000 cannot be expected to survive in business. The insurance costs for the business of a person in west Cork went from €11,000 to €25,000 without any claim having been put in. That is another connection to what we are discussing. It is leading to many businesses closing down and the silence from the Government on how to control the insurance industry is deafening. These are the type of measures that need to be tackled as well as, perhaps, some of the issues in the Bill.

If the Government is genuine in its intention to tackle alcohol issues, it should do what I have been calling for since I was elected to the House and shut the Dáil bar. There is no mention of that in the House. We discuss road traffic and alcohol Bills while there are two bars in the Oireachtas. What kind of message does that send to the people of this country? What are we doing? This is supposed to be our place of work. We do not need bars in the Oireachtas. If the Government is serious about tackling alcohol, it should start at home, which, for Members, is the Oireachtas. It should bring forward legislation to close the Dáil bars. People who get up at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. and work hard all day do not have any alcohol to drink or the opportunity to drink it and are now afraid to call in for a pint on the way home because the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2017 finished that practice. If the Government wishes to continue attacking the drinks industry, it should start by closing the Dáil bars. That would be an honest way to start tackling issues relating to alcohol. The Government should lead by example.

On visitor centres, the Bill does not contain any exemptions for Irish whiskey distillers' visitors centres. This means that advertisements for whiskey distillery visitor centres that contain the name of the brand will be severely constrained. For example, such advertisements will be prohibited in train stations, at bus stops and within 200 m of schools and crèches. Visitor centre advertisements will not be able to contain images of people or use storylines.

I ask the Minister to give special consideration to the impact of these measures on visitor centres. I visited such a centre recently at Clonakilty Distillery. This owner of the distillery is selling his product all over the world. He is trying to get the business off the ground and is doing so successfully. The visitor centre in Clonakilty is a high-rise building and the owner took me up to the top floor. He is going to bring in people from all over the world to visit this centre. The man's thoughts on this Bill are that if a crèche or a play school were to open within the viewing vicinity of that building, then his business would be in serious trouble. He would either have to block the windows or cover up whatever advert he might have up on them. This is crazy. I do not know where we are going with this. It is making matters a lot more difficult with. There are lots of ways of going about things, but this Bill not the way to proceed.

Everybody supports the objective behind the Bill, namely, to tackle harmful and underage drinking. However, extreme legislation is not always good legislation. I ask that the Minister consider the points I have raised and engage with the industry before Committee Stage in order to see what small changes can be made to address the concerns I have highlighted. Nobody is interested in scuppering the legislation - and they should not be - because there are many good aspects to it. I accept that. It is, however, about making sensible changes in order to strike a balance. I am afraid we are heading down a road similar to that relating to poitín whereby we will not be able to take a drink, advertise a drink or show a drink to anybody. The Minister will have to consider changes to the legislation before it would get full support here.

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