Michael D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the matter about what some people in the Fine Gael press office have issued, the matter can be very easily addressed with an apology. I would hope that should end the matter for two of my colleagues.

I raise another issue. It is amazing that we are into the budgetary arithmetic yet there is no conversation about the budget in two weeks time. I do not know if people saw the figures but the levy placed upon a bottle of wine in the last budget brought in €45 million in eight months. If there are to be tax increases, those are the type of areas we should be targeting. Specifically, I would like to see a similar levy placed upon carry-out beer from the off-licence market. Supermarkets in particular are doing enormous damage with their below cost selling. They do not get any profit on their cheap beer but once they get the customers in they skin them on other products. We could finally impact upon them by placing a similar levy or tax in that area. If it worked on a bottle of wine I am sure it can work on a carry-out bottle of beer.