Feargal Quinn (Independent)

It may seem strange to support Senator McFadden's call in regard to the reduction of tax on alcohol. I was contacted yesterday by a person who explained that reducing the duty on alcohol on 9 December means that those small wholesalers referred to by Senator McFadden which bought all of their alcohol before Christmas and have not yet sold it, of which there are approximately 50 in the country, suddenly find themselves with a burden they had not anticipated and which will probably put a number of them out of business. I have no idea how to solve the problem and I do not know what could be done. I am told that in 1984 the Minister at the time had Revenue move into the wholesalers when there was a similar reduction in duty on alcohol in order to be able to determine the amount of alcohol they had in their possession at that time. It appears that 50 or 60 wholesalers which are selling alcohol to retailers will lose a substantial sum. While I do not know how the problem will be solved, it draws attention to the same situation that was referred to by Senator McFadden.

My other point relates to the time of year. Today, in London, an effort is being made, based on the biblical story, to feed 5,000 people with food that would otherwise have been wasted. I use the example to remind us, as a country, of the amount of food we waste at a time when people are going hungry. Much of this is due to the retailers themselves and the tradition of having "buy one, get one free" deals. In a number of cases, this has been changed to "buy one, get one free later". It is a very small step but it means that those customers who are tempted to buy two products when they really only need one will get a token to get the second product free at a later date. This means there will be far less waste. The amount of food being wasted at both household and retail level is such that we could solve a great many of the problems we have by just paying more attention at this time of year.