Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the remarks made by Senator MacSharry, the Minister has spoken about this publicly and would like to find a solution to the issue. He makes a compelling case with regard to what would happen if we were not able to obtain funds in this area which could be used for the purpose of running the type of campaign he would like to run. The legal advice is that the lid-on argument or some kind of tax on container use would lead us to fall foul of the EU directives in this area. Needless to say, we cannot move in a direction where legal advice is clear we would not be successful. However, we are looking at other means of doing it. We have asked the industry to look closely at the issue also. I assure the Deputy we have an open mind as to how we can achieve the objective all sides would like to achieve here, because this is a serious issue which affects every part of our country. On Senator Barrett's point, the Minister has put on the record his strong opposition to below-cost selling, which fuels the consumption of alcohol in an irresponsible and disproportionate way. We have a responsibility to address this, but the issue is how to address it and we are examining that closely.

This section has provoked an interesting discussion on the objective of section 58. The expected yield from the increase is approximately ¤180 million in a full year. That is a lot of money in any man's language and is a significant amount of additional revenue. Therefore, if one was to go against this, one would need to provide an alternative source of income. Excise duty on beer has not increased since 1994. Budget 2010 reduced the excise duty on a pint of beer by 12 cent, so this increase of 10 cent leaves the excise duty on beer below the pre-budget 2010 level. The increases in the tax on alcoholic beverages are proportionate. Wine goes up by ¤1 and beer has increased by 10 cent, but I will not draw any conclusions with regard to who drinks what.

There has not been an increase in this area for some time and we believe that in the context of where the country is, it is necessary in trying to close the deficit that this sector makes some contribution. The additional revenue raised from this increase is not insignificant, at ¤180 million for a full year.