Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Minister on what he did over the weekend. When I read the headline in The Irish Timesor one of the other newspapers at the weekend, I thought the strength of the alcohol industry had the country again. I commend the Minister on holding true on this. It is a very important public health measure that has taken a significant amount of time. It is important that the Minister follows it through to the end. There are lots of spurious claims being made here and elsewhere to undermine and chip away at a very important Bill.

People mentioned attendance at funerals and hospices. One would attend them less frequently or perhaps the person whose funeral one attended would not have passed away so early if people had known about this issue. What we have again is everyone accepting the legislation and saying it makes a difference, they accept it, they are not trying to block it and they would never listen to the industry about this. They saying: "It is well-intentioned but", "It is harmful but" or "It is great but". There is a caveat attached to everything positive by the people trying to undermine this legislation. It is a disgrace in this House and elsewhere how the drinks industry has tried to influence Deputies to undermine facts.

We have heard again about common sense. Let us base public health on evidence and science, which is common sense when it comes to public health policy. The Minister is to be commended on driving this through and holding it to the threshold of good public health policy. I know Senator Black is here also. We did not have cancer labelling in primary legislation but it was put in, and taking it out would have been a contradiction to good public health. It would have undermined the science and the facts, which are what we need to hold true to.

People have been making spurious claims. One Deputy said that the legislation does not try to question the cancer claim, and I commend the Chair on that. The reality is that alcohol causes cancer of the mouth, the pharynx, the larynx, the oesophagus, the breast, the liver, the pancreas, the bowel and colorectal cancer. Most people know somebody affected by these issues. A recent New York Timesarticle revealed that some of the national institutes of health receive much funding from the alcohol industry, trying to shape their studies in order that moderate drinking will be made to appear safe, to try to normalise it and inject that doubt into people's minds. We need to send out a strong signal as a Parliament, and I am glad there is collective support on this. Alcohol causes cancer, and we would be negligent not to tell people that. Some people have mentioned toast, red meat and smoked salmon. I urge the House to check the British Medical Journal, where there are 13,861 entries for alcohol and cancer. In The Lancet, to which most people refer when it comes to science and evidence-based research, there are 25,048 references to alcohol and cancer. They are the facts and that is the evidence.

One person in the Chamber said that alcohol and loneliness are somehow inextricably and positively linked. My colleague, Senator Swanick, did a good study on loneliness, and one will find the word "alcohol" is not mentioned in it as a positive impact for people living in rural Ireland in isolation with problems. This is an attempt to try to create policy solutions to help rural Ireland, rather than going back to alcohol, which is the thing Deputy Danny Healy-Rae says solves every problem. He is undermining his constituents. He should be telling them the science and the facts-----

See this speech in context