Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail)

I compliment the Fine Gael Party on putting down this motion. It is a comprehensive motion dealing with far more than the price of drink. It outlines the alcohol related health issues, crime levels and so forth. It is not just a matter of how alcohol affects the people who abuse it but how society in general is affected by it through anti-social behaviour, which we have seen so often, and alcohol related crimes, which are becoming far more prevalent. We need only consider the number of stabbings, killings and so forth that take place at house parties, and alcohol is very much a factor in those. It is timely, therefore, to examine this issue and how society has changed.

Senator Colm Burke correctly said that we have gone from a pub culture to where drink is brought to the private house, where there is no control mechanism. I am not talking about social drinking but the large amounts of alcohol being consumed by young people. I travelled through a village recently in the middle of the day and I was very surprised to see a group of young men loading a number of six packs into a supermarket trolley to bring them to their cars. They were obviously going to a party but it certainly did not appear to me to be social drinking.

It is important not to wait for a knee-jerk reaction. I recall the very sad case in Dublin in which a young man was killed outside a nightclub. Subsequently, there was legislation in response to that. However, on the day after that crime virtually every mainstream newspaper carried an editorial concerning the abuse of alcohol, using that incident as an example. I am not saying the killing would be normal or prevalent but there are many such cases. When I spoke in the Seanad in the days following that very sad tragedy I said it would be gone off the radar the following week, and it was. That is the reason this motion is so important - it is not a knee-jerk reaction to a particular incident, but a focus on what we, as legislators, should endeavour to do.

This motion would not have been brought forward seven to ten years ago. One of the reasons is that we tended to treat the abuse of alcohol in a jocose manner. It was the stock in trade of every comedian to talk about the drunk. What we were missing, was what was happening behind that scenario, such as the broken homes, the violence in homes, young people's lives destroyed and the homeless people who once had homes but were now winos out on the street. That was the real story, but we ignored it. Perhaps we culturally ignored it because of our traditions in that regard. This motion, therefore, would not have been brought forward ten years ago. I genuinely believe a sincere effort is now being made to do what is right, and in a balanced way.

None of us is preaching about alcohol. We are talking about the abuse of alcohol, which is a different matter. In that context, we are prepared to give consideration to the fact that alcohol is an industry as well as being a social instrument. We accept that. However, at times I would have expected a greater response from the industry, in the same way that legislators gave a response. When legislation was required on smoking, for example, which is a drug like alcohol, we were prepared to grasp the nettle. There was huge opposition to what was being done but everybody knew that secondary smoking was harmful to individuals. We owed the legislation to the rest of society. We passed that legislation and it is working. People responded by looking after the rights of smokers as well. There is no advertising of cigarettes. I recall being taught in drama classes how to use one's hands, because all actors and actresses had a problem with that. One was always given a cigarette. If people look back at the many soap operas and well known films, they will see all the actors smoking.

The same is happening now with drink. Watch "Fair City", "Coronation Street" or "Eastenders". Each one of them sets most of their scenes in a pub. I am not arguing against that but against the glorification of drink. A great effort was made with the supermarkets. There are ten or 11 supermarket chains that agreed a regulatory approach to the display and sale of drink. The report from that body has just been released for the Minister, Deputy Alan Shatter. There is an independent monitoring body to ensure that these businesses fulfil their commitments as to where they place the drinks and how much advertising they do. They can only spend 25% of their advertising on drink. I spoke to the chairman of this body today and I understand this approach is working.

We should now examine the advertising of drink. We could do without it. Drink will still be sold. We should try to separate it from victory in sport and so forth. I recall seeing some very young men filling a trophy with drink after a game. That is not necessary. They will get their drink but that is associating the role models with drink. We should seriously examine that issue. Crime is a serious issue associated with drink. As with drugs, abusing alcohol leads to irresponsible actions. There is a tribal aspect to large numbers of people drinking together and, unfortunately, decent good young people get caught up in that unwittingly, not seeing the dangers attached to it. For that reason we must consider education. We have looked at education in other areas, such as for safe driving. When there are car accidents we tend to lower speed limits and the limits on the amount of drink one can consume. Can we not see the same situation here? We should learn from what we did in those areas. We grasped the nettle and were prepared to take a stand. From the education point of view, we must extend it into the schools.

I was delighted recently to see so many young people setting up No Name clubs, where alcohol is not available. However, I recall a survey being conducted about four years ago in a particular part of Ireland which endeavoured to find out at what age young people started to drink. The vast majority had started at the age of 13 years, and they were drinking hard spirits. The alarm bells are ringing. Fine Gael has taken a step today and legislators are prepared to come together on this issue. I believe society in general will thank us, as will young people in the long term. I commend Fine Gael for this motion.