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

I acknowledge the contributions of the Members. What came across strongly is the support Members from across parties and from none have for this Bill. The focus on our children came across strongly from Members who contributed so far. There are other considerations, but we must never forget the reason this is called the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill. This is the Department of Health producing a document which will help address the difficult problem in our country with regard to the consumption of alcohol. The figures are available. Alcohol abuse is costing us billions of euro every year. Can we imagine what we could do if we had that kind of money to put into our services?

People raised the question as to whether minimum unit pricing should be left to one side as against looking at restoring the groceries order. The groceries order is not the responsibility of the Department of Health. This is the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill. The responsibility of this Department is the health of the people in the country. An examination has been done and all of what we are doing is evidence-based. A study by the University of Sheffield found that below-cost selling would have a negligible impact on alcohol consumption or related harms. That is a fact. That is the evidence on which we are basing it. If people are anxious to have the groceries order restored, they should speak to the relevant Minister in that regard. If they are anxious that large multiples can claim back whatever they are able to claim back, they should speak to the Minister for Finance or the Revenue Commissioners about it. It is not the responsibility of the Department of Health to deal with that. What we are trying to do is target harmful drinking with minimum unit pricing. We are trying to target young people with minimum unit pricing. It is working in other parts of the world. I firmly believe we will be able to do it.

I made the point earlier that we must take into account the challenges Brexit is bringing with regard to Northern Ireland but that should not stop us proceeding with what we want to do. I hope the Minister will have the opportunity to bring it in, along with our counterparts in the North of Ireland, but in terms of our Bill we must not allow ourselves to become paralysed by events in the North of Ireland. We have to proceed with our own legislation. This is our country. It is our society, and our children, that we are dealing with. Women are presenting, and Members can speak to Professor Frank Murray about this, with cirrhosis of the liver in their 30s that was only seen in men in their 60s and 70s. There is something seriously wrong here. If we do not realise that we have a serious problem with alcohol, what are we here for as public representatives?

This is the long-awaited Bill we have been looking forward to that will address the difficulties we are having in our society as a result of the harmful consumption of alcohol. I enjoy a drink the same as almost every Member here. I would like to think I do not abuse alcohol but I am very concerned about the way alcohol is being abused in our society. We can see it. We see the manipulation going on by certain people who do not want this Bill. They want us to talk all day about nothing and not deliver on our Bill. This is a very important Bill for our society, our children, our health services and so on. We must recognise that and accept the evidence. I have in my hand the report on the pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015. The Chairman at the time was the then Deputy Jerry Buttimer. People who are still Members of the Oireachtas sat on this committee. Deputies Catherine Byrne and Regina Doherty, now Ministers of State, Clare Daly, Billy Kelleher, Seamus Healy, Peter Fitzpatrick, Mary Mitchell O'Connor, now Minister, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Robert Troy, the then Senator Thomas Byrne, Senator Colm Burke and others spent six weeks working on the pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill. They heard evidence from everybody. I urge anybody who has any questions as to the reason the Department is producing this Bill to read this document because 11 of the 17 colleagues on that committee are still Members of the Oireachtas. We should talk to them. We should ask Deputy Billy Kelleher or Senator Jerry Buttimer why they thought this was a good thing to sign up to. It is crucial that we recognise the work our colleagues have put into this Bill in terms of compiling the evidence and listening to everybody across industry, people who were campaigning on the issue of alcohol consumption and the Children's Rights Alliance.Everybody was listened to. Let us respect the work they put into this and read the comments made by Professor John Crown, a leading cancer specialist in this country. These are the people to whom the hardworking committee listened. It produced this document, much of which is in the Bill. Let us not be distracted and let us focus on what we want to do. It is now 2.20 p.m. We are due to finish at 3.30 p.m. I do not think we are going to achieve what we really want to achieve here, which is to get through the amendments we have; we certainly will not get there today at the pace at which we are proceeding. I urge Members to stick to the amendments that have been proposed and deal with them one by one. I will be very happy to answer questions as they come up because it is so important for us to get this right.