Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State. We are grateful to her for expressing such a strong commitment to taking action on this issue, about which there is a great deal of concern, which concern has been expressed across the House. I commend Senator Noone and the Fine Gael group for tabling the motion.

We all support Senator Barrett's call for an evidence-based policy on tackling alcohol abuse. The Senator quoted some statistics. OECD figures for the level of alcohol consumption do not include the large volumes bought in Northern Ireland and which would have to be acknowledged in any study of the problem. I agree, however, that we need data and evidence on which to base a policy. The Minister of State also made this point. It is clear that there is great concern about, and growing evidence of, the harm caused by alcohol abuse. Senator Gilroy and others, including the Minister of State, have pointed out that pricing is only one component of a harm-reduction policy, although it is clearly an important one.

The Minister of State's commitment to have minimum retail pricing per gramme of alcohol, independent of excise duties, requires serious consideration. There are at least three other components, however, including the advertising of alcohol and sponsorship of sports fixtures. Other speakers have addressed these issues. As a new Senator in 2007, I raised an issue which had been brought to my attention by a constituent from Trinity College, that is, the fact that alcohol companies were sponsoring football teams which were selling jerseys to children. The spectre of children walking around advertising alcohol companies on their jerseys was hard to take. In fact, action was taken elsewhere to ban the practice and subsequently such jerseys were no longer sold here. To me, however, it was a clear lesson on the need to tackle advertising to ensure there was a change in the culture of alcohol abuse.

Clearly, the licensing laws need to be re-examined, as the Minister of State indicated. Other speakers have also pointed to the need for such a change. Our experience of licensing laws reform, however, has not been particularly constructive. Often the reforms introduced, many of which we supported for the best reasons, had counter-productive effects. For example, the ban on so-called "happy hours" - which was debated during the lifetime of the previous Seanad - has had the effect of bringing about day-long promotion of alcohol, whereby bars and clubs are seeking to circumvent the law. Some bars are offering free haircuts with cheap drink to attract customers.