Dáil debates

Thursday, 8 February 2018

Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed)

 

2:35 pm

Photo of Tony McLoughlinTony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this much debated and much discussed Public Health Alcohol Bill, which is before us. It is a Bill which I know very well. It had a turbulent time in the Seanad last year and is legislation about which many industry and commercial organisations have contacted me since it was published regarding its worrying measures.

I support the overall principles of the Bill and its ultimate policy objective, the Minister for Health's efforts to reduce alcohol consumption. If this Bill was simply about reducing the consumption of alcohol and about reducing the harm caused by the misuse of alcohol in our society, as its listed objectives advise, I do not believe there would be any major cause for concern. However, it is not limited to these aims and features several areas which deeply concern me as an elected representative for Sligo-Leitrim, which I will highlight.

It seems as though, yet again, the hands of the un-named and unaccountable Government officials are all over this Bill and that we as public representatives are expected to run with it, despite its flaws. It is unfair. I speak here as a life-long pioneer and as a person who has never taken a drink of alcohol in my life. As far as I am concerned there is no vested interest on my part.

I strongly believe this Bill goes too far when attempting to address the real problems with excessive drinking in this country and will have many unintended consequences on a wide range of sectors throughout Irish society. These are consequences which could be avoided while still ensuring the Bill's overall aims are met. These are aims which I fully support and Ireland is already on its way to addressing them judging by the fall in consumption levels since 2002.

Whether it is in agriculture, employment, tourism or the economy, this Bill will have many unintended consequences across the country and many jobs will be lost as a result. My colleague, Deputy Eamon Scanlon, highlighted this earlier but I will give an example of how it will affect people in my area. Some years ago, a man named Pat Rigney invested in a small food hub facility in Drumshanbo, County Leitrim with the help of local activists. I have known him since he started in Drumshanbo. This location, since expanded, has become known as the Shed Distillery. This is a small village in the north west with limited industry. However, over the last two years Pat Rigney has hired 14 local staff and gone on to develop a unique, award winning Irish gin that has taken the world by storm from this rural village. The success of Drumshanbo Gunpowder Gin proves just what a success rural Ireland can be for investment. The product’s incredible growth has meant that further expansion and jobs are planned in Drumshanbo. It is expanding its product range having just received planning permission for a site for a multi-million euro whiskey visitor experience and tourist attraction, which if developed will create a further 20 jobs in the area. It is a wonderful success story for County Leitrim and is something which the local community in Drumshanbo is very proud off. A small start-up company, with limited market share to date, has grown in size as a result of its premium quality and being able to tell the unique story of its production and its humble origins.

It is a premium, high quality product that is clearly not being abused in the same way that other cheaper and low-cost spirits are, and as such, causing real damage, yet the consequences of this Bill, particularly sections 12 to 14, inclusive, will ultimately put this greater product's future in doubt. It has already put the new visitor attraction in Drumshanbo in doubt and it will also put all of these potential new jobs in County Leitrim in doubt. It and the high quality premium Irish products just like it are being damaged by this Bill. I believe this is deeply unfair as they are not the root cause of or even associated with the problems we are trying to address.

Moving away from Drumshanbo for a moment, I am firmly of the opinion that the key way to tackle the real abuse of alcohol in this country is to ensure that the below-cost selling of alcohol is tackled hard and that dangerous advertising campaigns and unsafe drink offers aimed at young people are curtailed. It is clear that this is where the real damage is being done and I believe this may have been the original intention of this proposal. However, we are now in a situation whereby this minimum pricing aspect of the Bill is totally reliant on the Government of Northern Ireland passing a similar Bill on pricing to avoid large-scale excursions across the Border and yet there are no guarantees that Northern Ireland will even have a Government in place at Stormont between now and 2020, let alone that it will bring in a Bill to this effect. Let us be clear, the one key area of this Bill which will ultimately have the greatest effect against harmful and dangerous alcohol consumption is simply not guaranteed as we stand here today. This is quite alarming.

The key areas of this Bill which, I believe, are causing the most alarm are the proposed new measures on labelling and the advertising of alcohol products. These dramatic and, in my opinion, unnecessary measures are somewhat excessive and when considered along with the fact that Ireland's alcohol consumption levels are already rapidly declining, can be seen as extreme.

With regards to labelling in particular, whilst I support the concept of any product on sale in Ireland displaying the content and calories contained within for health reasons and also the grams of alcohol along with the written warning, the proposals contained in section 12 will, amongst other things, ultimately lead to unfair stigmatisation of many Irish produced products abroad as many locally produced, as such, by smaller-scale alcohol producers will not be able to afford to have different labels for different countries due to the cost implications involved. This will lead to the stigmatisation of many Irish products internationally and as a result lead to damaging consequences for Irish businesses.

On this basis, I cannot see why the Government has accepted two amendments in the Seanad from Senators Nash and Black which, if retained, will require the introduction of mandatory cancer warnings on all alcohol products sold in the Republic of Ireland and a requirement that health warning labels must make up at least one third of dedicated labelling space. These amendments, in my opinion, have damaged the distinct labelling of premium Irish products, which are not being abused like cheaper products, and damage the reputation of these brands internationally. I must ask where has the Department of Health presented real scientific or evidence-based argument to justify the introduction of these specific cancer and 30% labels. Are the officials suggesting here that we will soon be putting cancer labels to the tune of 30% of the packaging on labels for bacon, sausages, red meat, butter, smoked salmon etc. for cancer risk also? What will be next? What will these cancer warnings look like? Will they be the same as those on the cigarette packages? As of yet, we do not know as this function will be decided solely by the Minister for Health. I do not doubt the Minister's good intentions here, but can one imagine a bottle of premium Irish whiskey, gin or whatever with such huge labels and images on it and the effect it will have on the potential to sell this product abroad? Who will this benefit when our producers are exporting? It is unworkable and it will greatly damage local business in Ireland and internationally.

The other key area in the Bill I have a major problem with is the way it will introduce advertising restrictions on products almost like a blanket ban. As well as having unintended consequences for the work of agencies such as Drinkaware Ireland, a NGO set up to limit alcohol abuse in the country, this Bill will ensure that the key players in the alcohol market will remain as the kingpins, as new companies and smaller producers will not be able to advertise their product to the market as the larger companies were able to do and as such will not be able to grow to the same extent. How can the Minister seek to compensate for the damage this Bill's measures will do on the rapidly growing craft beer industry, the new local distilleries and the tourism sector as a result?

Section 13 imposes significant restrictions on what can appear in advertisements and section 14 imposes significant prohibitions on where advertising, particularly outdoor advertising, can be placed. These restrictions will severely constrain how new brands can be advertised and promoted and they will clearly give an unfair competitive advantage to established companies. Without doubt, these restrictions will ultimately damage competition.

More critically, these restrictions have the potential to decimate the rapidly growing whiskey tourism sector. This worries me greatly as, aside from Drumshanbo, we have a major new whiskey distillery visitor centre being developed at Hazelwood in Sligo and I fear that any limit on advertising the tourism attraction would bring this major project into doubt.

Under section 2 of the Bill “advertising” is defined as "any form of commercial communication with the aim or direct or indirect effect of promoting an alcohol product and includes...the name of any brand of alcohol product". The Bill, as it stands, does not contain any exemption for Irish whiskey distillery visitor centres. Does the Department for Health really think that the whiskey tourism industry, with all its potential benefits to the economy, is causing the problems which below-cost selling of alcohol is causing? We need to get real.

Sections 13 and 14 restrictions will apply to any advertisement for an Irish whiskey distillery visitor centre that contains the name of the whiskey brand produced there. For example, visitor centre advertisements will not be able to contain images of persons or a suggestion of a storyline. Outdoor advertising will be severely limited and advertisements will be prohibited from train stations, bus stops and Luas stops. This is crazy and it will certainly have a major effect on tourism and jobs in many rural areas of the country.

I reiterate my firm commitment to the overall aim of this Bill, which is to reduce alcohol consumption in Ireland, to limit advertising to children and to prevent alcohol-related harm in the future. However, I am afraid that for me, personally, as a non-drinker, many of the changes contained within this Bill are a step to far and need to be addressed. We are throwing the baby out with the bath water in our excessive attempts to tackle a problem which, I believe, does not need to damage Irish tourism, jobs and industry whilst successfully achieving its aim.

In my view, the advertising and labelling restrictions contained within the Bill are poorly targeted, are not backed by evidence and will unfairly impact on local industry if left unchallenged. The Bill, as it is, stigmatises Irish products and does not focus on cheaper imports and below-cost selling in supermarkets. It will increase production costs to Irish businesses. It will introduce barriers to trade and will ultimately cost us local jobs.

I believe that we have taken-----

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