To date the Oireachtas has been shamefully reticent on this subject because of the active political lobby and political subscriptions of the drinks industry. It is time to call a halt. In terms of the damage to society this is a bigger scandal than anything under review by any of the tribunals. We hear a lot about drink being part of Irish culture. Culture my backside – it is nothing short of barbarism. The sight every weekend of drunken louts and hooligans of both sexes brawling, vomiting and excreting all over the centre of the city is something no self-respecting savage would describe as culture. There has been a 301% increase in the number of public order offences, from 18,000 to 55,000, over the last six years in direct parallel with the massive increase in under age drinking. The Government has so far disregarded all warnings and the 1996 national alcohol policy paper was totally ignored. As a result, its dire predictions have come all too true.