Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Reference was made to minimum unit pricing. Minimum unit pricing is a measure specifically targeted at heavy drinkers and younger people. That is the objective.

People are concerned about what will happen with regard to Northern Ireland. It will be a matter for the Minister to decide when he wants to bring in the measure. There is significant concern around Brexit and how we can continue with the relationship with the Northern Executive in the context of bringing in minimum unit pricing at the same time. That was always the intention and we sincerely hope we will continue to be able to do that.

A question was asked about below-cost selling. The University of Sheffield has found that a ban would have negligible impact on alcohol consumption and related harm. However, there is an opportunity for the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to consider the matter. At the same time, we have decided this is not something that will work for us based on the evidence produced. That is why we are going for minimum unit pricing instead.

Another question was asked about promotions. A number of sponsorships will be restricted at certain events. This is covered in section 15. It will be an offence for a person to sponsor an event at which the majority of individuals taking part are children. A section will deal with that query. If Senators hold on, we will deal with that in time. We will also be regulating for price promotions. There will be no price promotions such as those we have seen, like happy hours and messy Mondays and so on. We are certainly dealing with that in the Bill too.

I think I have dealt with most of the questions.