Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I concur with Deputy Pat Deering about the Minister's work on the Bill and the path it has come along since its inception. A huge amount of work has been carried out on it. The Minister has listened to many sectors and business people who are struggling in rural areas. I have a few concerns. It is important that we stand up and take responsibility. We have to lead as a country and accept the issues with alcohol in society. It is important that we see key advertising to provide awareness about the difficult and harmful effects that excessive drinking can have on family life. A recent advertisement was very poignant, stating the more a person drinks, the less time that person has to spend with his or her loved ones. That is very true. If a person drinks excessively, that person will do huge damage to those closest to him or her. We have to mitigate that and ensure society is informed.

The key areas about which I am concerned are the craft brewery sector and distillery sector which have been growing in Ireland in the past few years. There were four whiskey distilleries in Ireland prior to 2010 and there are now 18, with 16 more in the final stages of planning. We are now working on the Intoxicating Liquor (Breweries and Distilleries) Bill 2016 in the House to try to allow those distilleries and breweries to sell their products to visitors, with the current system being out of kilter with other countries worldwide. It is important that we carry forward that legislation.

My constituency has Kilbeggan Distillery, which was founded in 1757 and is the oldest distillery in Ireland. There are currently 40 people employed in it. Some 65,000 visitors go through its doors every year. It has another 70 people employed in County Louth. It has invested €14 million in the past six years and invested €4 million in Kilbeggan in my constituency to attract visitors and have sustainable rural jobs, which are vital to our society. Blacksmith Ventures is in Lanesborough, another area which needs employment and sustainable business to operate in that environment. It has received planning permission for an extensive distillery and visitor centre. I do not want to see businesses like that being affected by this legislation. They are businesses which are not really selling significant volumes to consumers. These businesses attract foreign investment and tourists to see the businesses first-hand. This sector has grown significantly in recent years.

I will address sections 12 and 13. One of the distilleries is on the River Shannon, almost overlooking Lough Ree. It needs to be able to tell the story about its business. The Bill precludes from the storytelling any person or scenic views of Ireland. It is hard for a craft brewery or new distillery to operate in that vacuum when trying to market a new product. It can be very difficult to market a new product because a person is operating in a vacuum, so to speak, with tough competitors. Those with well recognised labels will come to the fore but places like this new distillery in Lanesborough with new, sustainable jobs need to be able to market and sell its products. If there is a situation in which up to one third of the label has to have a harmful warning, with cancer having been mentioned, that is very serious. The alcohol industry has a responsibility with labelling to display nutritional values, include warnings for pregnant women and about harmful effects that it may have on health. If we compound that with a reference to cancer, considering that we process foods, how far will we go with this?

I am interested in hearing what the European Commission has to state about this. We all advocate free trade to be on one level. I am sure someone will take a case relating to this if this aspect of the Bill is not looked at. We are hampering free trade by, in effect, putting that label on it because we stand out among European countries. That is a big move to make. We have to support small manufacturing industries which are starting, including family businesses and companies. That is what this industry has grown from. They bring huge numbers of people into an area. The distillery in Lanesborough has full planning permission. If it is open two or three years after getting full planning permission and if, for argument's sake, a crèche opens 50 m away, does that mean that business is no longer viable or will not be able to put its name in front of its door? We need to look at sections relating to it.

Has the provision put forward relating to the cancer label been approved by the Cabinet or has the Cabinet assessed it? It looks like a late add-on to the Bill about which I would be hugely concerned. The groceries order was a huge issue which was talked about by many presenters. There were shows about it and the harm that it was doing. I think Deputy Micheál Martin was the Minister when it was abolished. One of the greatest failures at that time was that alcohol was not exempt from it. What happened, in effect, in convenience stores and such was that alcohol was sold as the loss leader to attract people. It left a situation where people could get vast quantities of alcohol at very cheap prices. We have to be sensitive to Northern Ireland. I know we are watching that as we bring the legislation forward. We also have to ensure that cheap alcohol is not as accessible as it was before since it is very bad for society. The people who had ripoff.ieand such programmes need to stand up to take responsibility too because they advocated that the groceries order be abolished, yet we faced huge social problems as a result of that. I remember Eddie Hobbs said it would reduce the housewife's weekly basket but it had the reverse effect. Being responsible, we need to call these things out.

Supporting business is very important. My real fear in this legislation is that there may be unintended consequences and the societal benefit from one or two small provisions of this may not be as great as people think where labelling is concerned. I would be grateful if the Minister considered that issue and assessed the late provision that was brought forward. I have heard people advocating for why it has been included. I am not trying to say we do not need some kind of nutritional values or warnings, but to require one third of the label to contain a serious, significant warning about cancer or something of that nature is too significant for business and the industry and I do not think there will be a benefit on the other side. That is the main point that I would like to see looked at.

We need to be careful with advertising where it relates to the small industry that is setting up and that we are facilitating through the Intoxicating Liquor (Breweries and Distilleries) Bill 2016. The owner standing in a distillery or craft brewery to promote it is not allowed to do so under this legislation. It is regrettable that, if someone is employing people such as Kilbeggan Distillery which employs 40 people, it will be very difficult to advertise successfully or to promote a new product such as in Lanesborough.

I thank the Minister for coming to the House for the debate. It is important that, as a society, we own up to the fact that we drink too much. It is welcome that the drinks industry has come a long way in the code of conduct it has employed on advertising. When finalising the legislation we need to be mindful of the sustainable businesses in rural Ireland that are providing vital employment, particularly the new breweries set up since 2010. It is important when crafting legislation that we do not unintentionally damage the industry. A visitor from overseas to the distillery in Kilbeggan is not someone who is engaging in excessive drinking. It is a different market, but it provides vital employment in the area.

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