Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I fully accept what Senator Reilly has said but I want to support my colleague, Senator McDowell. If it were the case that we were talking about alcohol as a generic product as against specific types of alcohol, there would not be a problem. I think we can agree, however, that young people buy a naggin of vodka or whiskey because it will give them a hit much quicker than a can of Dutch Gold, Heineken or something else. I am inclined to agree with my colleague, Senator McDowell, that there should be a differentiation to discourage the taking of what I would call hard-hitting alcohol substances like spirits. I do not want in any way to derail the discussion or the Bill, but why are they going in and buying two naggins of vodka as against a slab of beer? It is because they can slip the two naggins of vodka into their pocket, as Senator McDowell has said, and they can walk down the street and drink it down the street. I see it every evening in south County Dublin in different supermarkets with kids coming out with these naggins of whiskey, vodka and gin. They are drinking the stuff neat, which is even more worrying. I am inclined to think that there should be a way of using the price, which is an economic factor in that if the price is raised, consumption is reduced, as a way of differentiating the quantity of alcohol by measure-----