Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I welcome the initiative of Senator Marc MacSharry in bringing forward this Bill. It is an innovative and welcome initiative. He launched his policy last year and this is a positive step to see what we can do.

I acknowledge the great work of organisations such as Headstrong and the Jigsaw initiative. Others include Dáil na nÓg and Comhairle na nÓg, whose 200 delegates discussed mental health last year. I had the pleasure of attending part of the meeting as one of the link people with the Oireachtas. They discussed mental health, bullying, peer pressure, sex education, drug and alcohol abuse and social isolation. These issues are all interlinked and they decided to have a gathering on mental health.

I also acknowledge the work of SpunOut, particularly the Ditch the Monkey series of five videos by the Irish animator Eoin Duffy and the National Office for Suicide Prevention. It outlines the five steps to wellness and is a set of evidence-based actions that promote positive mental health by encouraging people to choose to get out in the world, to connect, to contribute, to be healthy, to accept themselves and to be aware so that they can stay on the path to wellness. On that point, most of the people I have had discussions with in this arena have cautioned me about overusing the term "suicide" instead of having a broader discussion about mental health and wellness. In my volunteer life, I am doing a series of consultations with young people in the Irish Girl Guides. I was in Macroom on Saturday and the young people were talking about trends, the pressure on them from trends and how their physical health is so connected to mental health. We need to build up self-esteem that protects us, mental health and mental wellness. Anything we can do to ensure this should be welcome.

I have a specific issue to raise with Senator MacSharry, which makes me hesitate to support the Bill. Looking at the legislation, I fear it may breach EU law. Any proposed levy on off-licence sales would be in breach of the EU excise directive concerning the general arrangements for excise duty. Council Directive 92/83/EEC provides for the taxation of alcohol on the basis of volume and content and breaks alcohol into specific excise duty categories for various alcoholic drinks. These rates are applied to all alcohol, making no distinction between on-trade and off-trade. I have no doubt that Senator MacSharry has looked at this. I support an increase in the pricing of alcohol, so this is an issue I have looked at, but we cannot do it only for the off-trade. Applying a levy appears to be in breach. Applying a levy to a container in which alcohol is sold while not applying the same tax rates to the on-trade does not satisfy the provisions of the directive. It would affect competition. I would welcome if Senator MacSharry could give me advice on that provision in the Bill.