Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

—or drove a car and killed somebody else, the fact that it was only one person and that the entire premises was not being run like some kind of Bacchanalian place does not diminish the seriousness of the matter.

I want to get across the message to the drinks industry – we will succeed in doing so – that, from now on, it is a serious matter if somebody gets drunk in a premises. The superpubs, in particular, cannot simply roll out the drink in a commercial industrial operation and have poor, hapless lounge staff earning pittances delivering it to people, without somebody at the top of this arrangement taking responsibility and realising – this applies especially in the case of superpubs which are frequently franchised out – that they face serious consequences, including up to a week of no trading, if they end up breaching the law in respect of drunkenness.