David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Angola, yes. They are all the bloody same, they are all in a mess. The timing of the legislation is rather curious and the smile on the Minster's face suggests he is not actually screwed in introducing alcohol control legislation in the run-up to Christmas.

I am not a pioneer but I support the pioneers. If they were needed in the 19th century, they are very much more needed now. I live in the north inner city of Dublin and I see the devastating impact of alcohol on people who really cannot afford it. The minimum price proposals are welcome. Does fortified wine as sold in chemist shops come under the price proposals? It always amused me to see the derelicts drinking Marie Celeste sherry - with the image of the haunted, sinking ship on its label - as they collapsed on the ground. In the explanatory memorandum, it is correctly stated that alcohol is no ordinary product. It certainly is not. It is unlike any other product. It has major public health implications and is responsible for a considerable burden of health, social and economic harm to individuals and families across social levels. This is absolutely true.

I received a briefing - as have many other Senators - from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. They say that alcohol-related disorders accounted for one in ten first admissions to psychiatric hospitals in 2011 and that alcohol is the leading cause of cancer in this State. Many people do not realise there is such a link between alcohol and cancer. I had a liver transplant about 18 months ago. I asked if my condition was related to alcohol because I used to sometimes go off on a skite and I wondered if it could have had any effect. I was told that it was related to an earlier incidence of hepatitis from water I drank while visiting Budapest. However, it could have been related to alcohol and many people who were in my post-op ward were there with alcohol-related conditions. Some 25% of all injuries among those presenting at accident and emergency departments are alcohol related. Alcohol is a factor in suicide, domestic abuse and accidents. There is also evidence that alcohol has a reinforcing effect on poverty. The accident and emergency departments in hospitals are absolutely jammed with people who have overindulged, principally on alcohol but also with drugs and they clog up the whole area for the legitimate victims of accidents. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland gave an unequivocal welcome to this Bill. It believes it sets a strong precedent for further changes in the Bill.

Alcohol abuse costs the State an estimated €3.7 billion per year. Imagine what could be done with the health service or schools with this amount of money? Alcohol abuse is causing colossal damage and yet it is ferociously unpopular to attack alcohol - drink is a little tin god. I got the most unspeakable abuse - but I do not give a damn as I am elected to this House to be an independent voice - when I suggested that splurging social welfare payments on drink was not the intended use of that money and that tax dollars were being spent on drink. Some people thought I did not know the currency we use but the term "tax dollars" is a cliché.However, I believe it is obscene to spend money that is generated from the tax of elderly people on drink. Moreover, I object to my tax dollars being used. If I want to buy somebody a drink, I will do so but I do not want my tax money going to buy them drinks. That is not what it is for and I said it again to great unpopularity ten years ago, when the Union of Students in Ireland, in producing its scheme for student grants, included €50 per month for drink. Why should old age pensioners pay for students to drink? I have never understood it but, of course, I got well walloped.

The Minister has also been rather walloped not by the kind of cranks I encountered, but by the drinks industry. The way in which the drinks industry seeks to impose pressure on the Government is rather like the tobacco companies. I have a headline to hand that states: "Diageo's threat to scale back its Irish operations highlights the potential of proposed measures to improve health." All I can say to the Minister is that if Diageo is threatening him, he is doing the right thing because he has got the company a little bit rattled. Then there are those rather dreary people, the anti-alcohol groups who, when one sees a huge advertisement suggesting one will be sexually potent, socially gregarious and intellectually powerful if one drinks a couple of bottles of wine, add to it a little insipid message saying one should remember to enjoy alcohol sensibly. That is not what the drinks industry wants; it wants people to be guzzling it down as hard as they can to increase the industry's profits. While my colleague, Senator Barrett, will challenge this, the Minister stated that Ireland is in the top five in Europe for alcohol consumption. We certainly are very high but it is also about the way in which we drink. In continental Europe, people take drinks with meals. If one looks at the way in which young people approach it, nowadays they go out and buy a couple of cheap bottles of wine, guzzle them down and then go to the nightclubs already plastered, which is terribly unhealthy. A total of 76% of Irish people drink alcohol, which is a very high figure and at least 53% do so at least weekly. However, the worst figure is that 39% of people binge-drink, which is a really frightening statistic.

I greatly welcome the introduction of minimum unit pricing. It is a good idea that will also deal to a certain extent with below-cost selling, which is a real cancer on the subject. The Bill also provides for the labelling of alcohol in order that one knows what is its strength, what goes into it and so on. Some people have urged that as in the smoking legislation, one should put up photographs of damaged livers and so on to deter people. I am not sure what the Minister thinks about that. The Bill also deals with restrictions and prohibitions on advertising of alcohol. In particular, I am glad to see the first beginnings of an attack on sport. It is dreadful that drink should be used to advertise sport and drinks sponsorship of sport is completely and absolutely wrong. I welcome the restrictions on advertising of alcohol near schools and crèches, on trams and trains, at bus and railway stops and so on, as well as in sports areas. However, I noticed what appears to be a contradiction, albeit it may be about timing. I understand this is part of an incremental approach and the Minister intends to withdraw eventually alcohol sponsorship from sports pretty well across the board. However, I note the Bill provides that individuals can wear alcohol-branded clothing on a sports area during a sporting event. However, the explanatory memorandum states further down that section 16 provides that children's clothing, including footwear, that is branded an alcohol product or promotes alcohol consumption cannot be manufactured, sold or imported for sale in the State. I assume that a ban on wearing these kinds of sponsorship garments will gradually come into effect as the ban on the manufacture, sale or importing bikes, because I do not understand how somebody could wear these kinds of materials otherwise. I am intrigued by the ban on racing cars and bicycles and am not sure why they are singled out in particular. I would suggest banning drink advertising in cinemas altogether, right across the board. As for provisions to prohibit providing alcohol at reduced price, that is very good but what about happy hours?

I note the consumption of alcohol in Ireland in 2014 was 11 litres per person, which was an increase. Although people have been saying all over the place there was no increase, there has been an increase. A systematic review published in 2009 concluded that exposure to alcohol marketing can reduce the age at which young people start to drink. Consequently, young people are being targeted. I will conclude by noting the science committee of the European Health and Alcohol Forum stated it can be concluded from the studies reviewed that "alcohol marketing increases the likelihood that adolescents will start to use alcohol, and to drink more if they are already using alcohol". There one has it; young people being targeted. No wonder Diageo is in a tizzy. I say "well done" to the Minister.