Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, for being present and in particular for his pledge to bring a concrete set of proposals to Government in the near future. That is very welcome. I also welcome the work done by the steering group, in particular the work done by the former Minister of State, Deputy Shortall.

In his summary the Minister of State said that ambivalence is now inexcusable. I agree with that. Reference was made to the prospect of increasing the price of alcohol and perhaps reducing advertising. They are the two big picture issues. A brand of vodka is now spending millions on advertising. It is making it look really attractive. It has beautiful colouring and what looks like balloons on the bottles. It looks like something one wants to have. I do not even drink vodka but I cannot help but be struck by the beauty of the advertising. I do not know what the proposals are on smoking but it is clear that branding and packaging considerations must also apply to alcohol because there is a big advertising campaign afoot, as was the case with alcopops, the sweetened alcoholic drink. That is one area to which I wish to draw the Minister of State?s attention.

The Minister of State is aware that young people now engage in a habit known as pre-drinking. That is what happens when we start to lower or increase the age for the consumption of alcohol. One drives them indoors. They buy cheaper and cheaper alcohol. It is gut-rot stuff.

They are having four or five very stiff drinks before they even leave the house because drink is so expensive. I appreciate the dilemma we and the Minister of State are in as we try to work out which bit to correct. If we correct one bit, we will upset another. People bring cheap drink to weddings and other social occasions in their bags because they cannot afford to buy it at the bar. They drink it from under the table. I appreciate the pricing mechanism issue is not that simple, as one cannot just raise prices because there is a knock-on effect further down the line.

I draw the Minister of State's attention to the fact that when the Seanad Public Consultation Committee met in June, one of the many speakers was Dr. Trina McCarthy of the National Cancer Control Programme. She mentioned specifically that 1,200 cases of cancer diagnosed each year were caused by alcohol and that 25% of all alcohol-related deaths were due to alcohol-associated cancers, a very high figure.

Representatives of the North West Alcohol Forum also spoke at the committee. Mr. Eamon O'Kane is the man in charge of the forum which is trying hard to bring about the change in society about which several Senators spoke. Senator Catherine Noone mentioned the problem of drink driving. We have obviously done some good in persuading young people to become more interested in how their parents behave. They can be very good at telling their parents to stop smoking. We have done a lot in tackling the problem of smoking, although we have not won the battle. However, we really need to look at how we can address the issue among much younger children. Can we be brave and admit we must start this conversation much earlier? Clearly, 15 and 16 year olds are drinking. I know of others aged 12 and 13 years and if we do not engage with them until much later in the debate, the damage will have been done and the patterns set at a much younger age.

The North West Alcohol Forum is holding a major conference on the issue in November and specifically seeking to find ways by which it can engage with local leaders in voluntary and community groups, the Garda, the HSE, psychology services, public representatives and so on. There must be something to be said for that model which is different from banning or taxing in that it deals with the much wider challenge we face. As every speaker has noted, this is about Irish society which has always had a warped relationship with alcohol. Part of our responsibility is to try to change this by raising the issues to do with alcohol with children at an earlier age. That is a brave thing to say because it will be said we cannot talk to children about drink. However, if we do not talk to them about it, they will talk to each other. They know which drinks to mix, which plastic bag will hold alcohol without breaking and how to smuggle it into discos. They know what they are doing and are leaving us to one side because we are not part of the conversation with them. I urge the Minister of State to find a way to start such a conversation, perhaps in tandem with the Minister for Education and Skills.