Deirdre Clune (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the sentiments of Senator Darragh O'Brien on the 9% rate and have made that case to the Minister, as have others. That rate has been a very successful job creation initiative and the figures speak for themselves. I know from members of the Irish Hotels Federation who are visiting the Oireachtas today and from the members of the Restaurants Association of Ireland who visited last week that the initiative has been extremely successful and both Ministers, Deputies Bruton and Noonan, acknowledge that.

The measure, if retained, will cost €360 million. However, the Minister for Finance will not tell us that in the House. He will inform us of the situation on 15 October in the budget and we will not get a preview in this or any House. The initiative will cost €360 million and perhaps Senator O'Brien will indicate as to where that money could be found - the crux of the issue - when the Opposition is setting out its stall in the preamble to the budget.

I welcome Arthur's day, which has got significant attention this week, and hope people enjoy it. The attention has been focused on excessive drinking and binge drinking in our cities and towns. However, tomorrow night is Friday night and Saturday night is another regular night for drinking. Will the Acting Leader put pressure on the Minister responsible to produce the alcohol action policy? The policy has been dragging around over the past two years and there have been no developments with it. We hear it may be stuck on the sponsorship issue. If that is the case, that should be decided. However, alcohol here is cheap and this cheap availability is an issue. A can of beer is cheaper than a bottle of water now.