Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too rise to make my comments on this amendment. I fully understand that cancer has very serious connotations for young and old. There is hardly a family in the country that is not affected by it. National hospice day took place last Thursday and coffee mornings were held up and down the country. The message certainly needs to go out to people of all ages about all harmful products. I lost two brothers, two first cousins and many more people to cancer.

While the Bill may be well intentioned, including this amendment, it has crossed the line of common sense and understanding. We are trying to deal with the detrimental effect of ill health but no impact analysis was carried out on the adverse effect this legislation might have on the economy, especially in rural areas but also in urban areas. I regularly visit Bray in the Minister's county where I go to a few hostelries the Minister frequents himself and I see a host of craft beers from Wicklow, including the town of Bray. Thankfully, every county now has craft beers. We are trying to encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship and encourage people to have the courage to become self-employed and to get local enterprise offices, LEOs, and county enterprise boards to support these businesses to create employment in rural towns and villages and in the countryside. We must continue to do that. Another speaker I heard earlier referred to Ministers turning up to launch new breweries. Maybe the Minister launched one of the craft breweries in Bray or Wicklow.

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