Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this Topical Issue matter. The purpose of seeking it is to get clarity from the Minister of State on the timelines for the implementation of the section of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 that relates to minimum unit pricing. I emphasise once again the futility of enacting this Part of the Act in the absence of any similar minimum pricing in the North of Ireland. The rumour has been doing the rounds in the trade, from the chambers of commerce to Retail Excellence Ireland members and some members of the Vintner's Federation of Ireland, that the Department may be on the verge of enacting or implementing this Part. Every Member will be aware of the importance of minimum unit pricing and a majority of this House, including myself, saw, and still see, fit that this Part be enacted. When we debated this issue, the necessity that this legislation would have to operate simultaneously on the island of Ireland was flagged, otherwise there would be an outflow of shoppers to the North of Ireland, not just to buy alcohol, but to do their weekly shopping as well, thus inflicting problems on the retail industry, be they pubs, bars, off-licence trade, or the livelihoods of small shopkeepers who lose out to the larger supermarket outlets, particularly in the Border region. In 2015, when he was Minister for Health, the Taoiseach stated in the Seanad:

While we are not writing it into the Bill, it is our intention to go ahead with minimum pricing at the same time as Northern Ireland. We have an agreement with the Northern Ireland Executive that it will also introduce minimum unit pricing. We intend to do it at the same time for all the obvious reasons. It would be totally counterproductive if people just went north of the Border. While it is not written into the legislation, as we do not want to totally tie our hands, it is certainly the intention.

The Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, when addressing the issue in the Seanad in 2017 stated:

I take the point about Northern Ireland and acknowledge Senators from the Border area, including Senators O'Reilly, Wilson, Gallagher and any I have missed, who raised this issue. I understand that we always have to be conscious on the island of Ireland of the impact of what we do in one area on the other.

He went on to state:

There is a Government decision on trying to do this alongside Northern Ireland. We need a government to talk to in Northern Ireland but that is for another day. Northern Ireland was moving in this direction but the Government will commence this at an appropriate time. The purpose of the Bill is to put the legislative framework in place to enable the Government do that.

I support the Taoiseach and the Minister of Health's stances on that and the need to continue with it, once we have similarity in approach both north and south of the Border. The activities of some supermarkets in using alcohol as a loss leader, especially last Christmas, were probably the most extreme abuse of alcohol as a product to date. In one outlet, a bottle of Captain Morgan rum was on sale at €10, when the combined excise and VAT on that product was €12.30. Another outlet was selling six bottles of wine with a 25% discount and a £10 voucher. This offer, again, was below the combined excise and VAT for the product. I could go on, but I would not want to blame the Minister of State for being tempted to introduce minimum unit pricing on account of this activity, as what is often missed is that the State is subsidising this activity of below-cost selling through the VAT system. I urge him not to be influenced by that greed

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