David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I was a member of the sub-group of the Joint Committee on Health that put together the report which the former Minister of State, Deputy Shortall, worked on with the joint committee. One of the things that struck me about the work not just of the sub-committee but of the committee itself, which signed off on the report, was that there was cross-party support for initiatives which we all want to see the Government take. Across most of the areas, with the exception of minimum pricing but including the areas of advertising, the presentation of alcohol and in terms of the hierarchy of wanting to ensure that prevention, intervention and education are the No. 1 priority, this cross-party support was important, although, of course, the other issues are also important.

One of the areas where there was not cross-party support and where my party was not in a position to give consent in terms of the document was in regard to minimum pricing because we do not believe it will work. If pricing is to be used as an instrument to reduce consumption, we need to look at what is the best way to do that. I believe the best way is to increase taxes and excise duty on alcohol, where the money raised comes back to the Exchequer and any extra revenue is ring-fenced for the prevention, intervention and education options which we all want to see happen. While I would want the Minister of State to tease out whether the Government is considering how to make this work in practice, if this was to be the case, we would simply enrich the profits of the people who sell the alcohol, whereas the intention behind the initiative is to prevent and reduce consumption. I have a very real concern about minimum pricing, although we maintain the whole area of below-cost selling should be dealt with.

What was very interesting was that part of the committee's work was to have all of the so-called players, including the drinks industry, come before the committee. Like Senator Crown, the phrase "lies, damned lies and statistics" comes to mind, as conflicting reports came from different people who represent different sectors of the industry. The reality is that the people who produce and sell alcohol had a very real vested interest in making sure that alcohol consumption was not reduced, and we have to be very clear about and conscious of that.

Our responsibility is to protect people's health and well-being and reduce consumption. The drinks industry should not be partners in the process. We must be clear about that. We have to take decisions based on reduction. The advertising of alcohol should be banned completely. The distribution of flyers by some of the leading multiples advertising cheap alcohol must end. It is wrong also to allow flyers advertising ringing one?s local off-licence to get alcohol delivered to one?s door. We must be adult and mature in what we do. I agree with a watershed of 9 p.m. for radio and television advertising. We are not seeking to ban alcohol. Some might see that as an option but I do not.

No reference was made to advertising in the Minister of State?s speech but much reference was made in the committee to social media and the fact that Diageo, for example, and some of the big alcohol companies use Facebook and social media to target young people. It is a difficult area given that social media are global but we must be conscious that when we look at the advertising of alcohol it is not sufficient to focus on the traditional methods of advertising such as radio, television and the print media as social media now exist, which are hugely important and much more difficult to regulate. One of the recommendations made by the joint committee was that we would also examine the regulation of social media.

I wish the Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, the best of luck in his efforts to reduce the abuse of alcohol. I hope he is bold and radical but at the same time sensible and pragmatic about what is possible. We would all like to arrive at the utopia outlined by Senator Crown, but we must do it in stages. We must be bold in the initial steps we take on the basis of the reports before the Minister of State currently that were commissioned by the previous Minister of State.