Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for not being here earlier. My committee is having a short break so I came up here and am glad I did. I have a few points I wish to make. It seems that a lot of those speaking are Members on the Government side, which is unusual on Committee Stage. Nonetheless I will say what I have to say and probably disappear again, for which I apologise.

We do not think twice about labelling food. We accept it. We must be careful not to reduce the efficacy of the Bill by suggesting liquid that goes into our mouth and affects us in a similar way to food does not have the same requirements. I would be in favour of similar nutritional information requirements for alcohol. The need for warnings can be compared to that in the tobacco industry. We do not need to go as far as having pictures of livers with cirrhosis on whiskey bottles but we need sensible warnings which are not hidden given they are supposed to be warnings.

To an extent I agree with Senator Lombard on the whiskey point, which I mentioned to the Minister's officials earlier. Far be it for me to think of exceptions to the Bill because I advocate for the Bill and want it enacted as close to its current state as possible, but Senator Lombard referred to what are often rare whiskeys. In particular, these rare whiskeys are being sold in duty free shops. This is a big market all over Europe and around the world and they are competing with duty free shops for that market. Unless one is a multimillionaire, one is not going to be necking or binge drinking on whiskey that costs €150. There is a distinction to be made for that market, which is important, but the other important factor is that any drink made in Ireland will have warning labels on it. Therefore, it is more of an issue for foreign producers than our own producers of high end whiskey.

It is important to remember that any drink which is to be sold in any kind of volume in Ireland will go through distributors. In the same way as food that is being sold from other countries to Ireland, it will go through distributors. Those distributors will have to ensure it complies with EU laws and, in this case, Irish laws. It will not be a huge burden on companies selling Irish-produced drink if it is sold in any kind of volume, as it will be an easy thing for them to do. High end whiskeys, which are very expensive and collector items, have to be distinguished. That is fair enough. However, anything that has a reasonable cost, whether produced in Ireland or elsewhere in volume, should contain warnings. As far as I am concerned, if warnings are to be placed on alcohol, they should be on those that are affordable and that people can drink in volume.