Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It has been useful to me that the Seanad scheduled a debate on this issue. I assure Members I have taken note of all that has been said on this pressing issue. Members have been very clear on the harm alcohol misuse causes. The national substance misuse steering group's report has been the key in provoking this debate along with the work of the Seanad and the health committee. We have deliberated on these issues and need to make some decisions to bring forward policy instruments to address them.

I have listened to what people have been saying and I have been reading and considering all of the reports prepared, not least the strategy group's report. It is not simply a question of conjecture, anecdote or argument without any basis. There is hard evidence to support the type of effective measures on alcohol control that people have been advocating at what could be termed the softer end of changing people's attitudes. This is always a difficult area and when we refer to the need to change people's attitudes and to approach it in a holistic way, everyone agrees on the face of it that it makes sense to try to change the culture and so on. However, it is always difficult to work out exactly how one delivers this. We need to introduce harder measures, policy instruments put into law, that are effective. They should not be put into law for the sake of demonstrating a view or our concern but they should actually have an effect.

Members have raised the issue of minimum unit pricing. There has been a debate about this and one hears the reaction from some quarters to the effect that minimum pricing would have no effect. As a recently appointed Minister of State, I have heard both sides of the argument. Some people say it will not have an effect and others believe that it will. Perhaps some vested interests have argued that it would have no effect. We should consider whether there is evidence. Studies have been prepared and it appears this is the case. Recently, the World Health Organization and other bodies have brought forward evidence demonstrating the actual and likely effects and certainty of effects of measures such as minimum unit pricing. This is why the strategy group put those proposals in its report. It was not simply in order that they could have a list of proposals that looked good on paper. The proposals have been tested to see whether they would have an effect and have been shown to have such an effect.

There may be other regulatory mechanisms to reduce ease of access to alcohol. Senator O'Sullivan provided an example from Norway, where there is almost a cloak and dagger atmosphere around access to alcohol. One must look hard for it. He described coming up to a hatch, presenting himself and having to say who he was and what he wanted, and only then was it delivered. It is completely devoid of the presentational context in which alcohol is sold in other countries.