Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

These amendments relate to advertising and ensuring that places, be they interpretive centres or microbreweries, can advertise what is going on. This comes back to the question of whether the consumption of alcohol, the sale of alcohol and the promotion of the industry as a whole are bad things. As I said previously, we have to be very careful in this debate about the demonisation of an industry. There is nothing wrong with producing or selling alcohol and nothing wrong with drinking it, if people do it in moderation.

I have continually stated publicly that the best people to look after the sale of alcohol are barmen and women, especially people who have been bred into the industry and worked in it since they were children. They are responsible and diligent. They want to ensure that people have a good, safe and happy time on licensed premises. These people cherish the fact that they possess a licence to sell alcohol.

In what we would call these more modern times, people who have started off microbreweries from very small beginnings and created employment in their places of business are to be commended. They are the types of people we want in communities. They are producing local beer and spirits and branding them locally.

This comes back to the amendments and the reason I am on my feet which relates to signage. When people invest they want to be able to let people know where they are operating. For example, Killarney has a microbrewery which started very small, got a bit bigger and created more employment. It is located on the Muckross Road and it is now like a visitor centre. People can come to have a bite to eat and sample the beer that is brewed locally. It has a local brand and we want to promote that brand. These microbreweries are not just in Killarney, but in other places in Kerry and Cork and around the country. There is nothing wrong with promoting alcohol in moderation.

There is one thing I do not want to see happening here and it seems to be happening a lot. People are sticking their noses up at the idea and saying we should not promote alcohol or have anything to do with it. People drank when there was prohibition. When there was supposed to be no drink, there was never as much alcohol sold and consumed. Over in America they thought prohibition was a good idea and we saw what happened. It became part of organised crime. They could not bring back the properly administered sale of alcohol quickly enough because they realised they made the biggest boo-boo ever in bringing in prohibition. It led to a totally crazy situation where criminals took over.

I neglected to say it the last night and I am sorry. I want to declare, obviously, my brother is a publican with a seven-day licence. I readily admit I am involved in the sale of alcohol. I own an off-licence. I might be accused of saying what I am saying because I have a vested interest. I know the Minister would not say it, but people who are against me might want to say it. However, that is rubbish. I am saying it because I am entitled to say it. I have been elected to represent everybody and that includes people who might be totally against alcohol. I am also here to represent people who want to consume alcohol in a proper, safe and measured fashion. I am here to represent the publicans, the hoteliers and the off-licence holders, first of all in County Kerry, and then the rest of the people throughout the country who are involved in the sale of alcohol.

Throughout my life I have had the pleasure of having great friends who are publicans and hoteliers.

I know first-hand how hard they work. They work seven days a week. I know they are highly responsible people. They never want to see a situation where there is a row in their licensed premises or where someone leaves and has a mishap, be it an accident or a fall, or hurts himself or herself or has anything bad happen to him or her. They feel as responsible as a person who sells a meal and wants people to enjoy that meal and have good food and a good experience. People who sell alcohol are the exact same.

I am very worried at the way this whole debate has taken on a life of its own. I am not 100% blaming the Minister or the Government but I am not praising them either because there seems to be an idea creeping in that, "We are the Government and we are totally against alcohol". If it is totally against alcohol, it is totally against the industry and totally against all these people who create an awful lot of employment and collect an awful lot of tax. While we are talking about publicans and hoteliers, I want to talk about the amount of tax they bring in. They hand it in to Government and the Government then has it to spend as it wishes. They are big tax collectors for the Government. When the Government is criticising them and hitting their industry, it should remember it is criticising people who are working for it from early morning until late at night, because they are glorified tax collectors. That has to be put on the record.

It cannot all be a one-way street. Of course, I am as concerned as anyone else about alcohol being controlled. We do not want young people to consume alcohol and we do not want people to overindulge in alcohol. However, do we want people to go out and enjoy themselves? Of course, we do, and there is nothing in the world wrong with that. There is nothing in the world wrong with people at a wedding having a few drinks and enjoying themselves. There is nothing in the world wrong with people going out on a Saturday night after a hard week of work and having a couple of beers for themselves and meeting their friends. There is nothing wrong with that. Anyone with any bit of common sense will say that the reasonable consumption of alcohol can be a happy experience for people, and everyone enjoys themselves.

I commend the alcohol industry on its responsible nature over many years. When it comes to the issue of signage, I do not want a situation where people will not be allowed to advertise their businesses.

See this speech in context