James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will allow Senator McDowell digest that comment before I speak.

Senator McDowell is missing the key point here. I know he speaks from a certain point of view but the bottom line is that alcohol is the substance that is the mind-altering, body-damaging agent which we are attacking here, not any form or container of alcohol. We have been through all of this. The damage is done by alcohol in whatever form it comes and this is a way of making it difficult for people to buy slabs of beer below cost or the cheap bottle of, for instance, Polish or Russian vodka and I do not mean to pick out any nation. The core of it is to protect people and in particular, children, from that. With due respect I support the argument that the Minister should not change this Bill when it comes to minimum unit pricing.