Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have never heard such a love-in in all my life. Is there anybody here who is against anything?

I agree wholeheartedly with everything Senator Coffey said. He epitomises somebody who understands rural communities and how to deal with them. It is not necessary, however, to go to a rural community to see what he is talking about. Less than half a mile from here there is a Centra shop and if the Minister demands structural separation, that shop will have to throw alcohol out because there is nowhere for it to segregate alcohol. I too have never seen anybody coming out of a rural shop with trolley loads of booze. I have seen in the North of Ireland how the large multiples segregate booze from the rest of the store. I have also seen that it is less visible in the way they manage it and I think there is some merit in that. I have to admire the Minister for being willing to go back and meet retailers and listen to their problems because it is true that if he forces the small shop in Kilmacow or Balla to segregate, the shopkeeper may find that because alcohol sales only slightly improve profits they no longer need to sell it and an employee may lose their job or the shop may have to be closed. I disagree with Senator Mulherin, if the shop in Balla cannot sell wine nobody will drive the extra 20 miles to buy seven bottles of wine. I do not see a mother saying she will put the kids in the car and go to Castlebar to buy six bottles of wine because she could not buy one locally. She may be right but I do not think that would happen.

The Minister is willing to go back and meet people to find a solution to this problem. While some of the solutions offered this evening have merit, I am not sure taking it from view will stop addiction. There is drug addiction in every town and village in Ireland but there is no shop advertising, "Get your cocaine here" or on the basis of "Buy one get two free". If people want it, however, they will find it. If I go to any shop in my area in the evening, I will find four or five young fellas or girls outside the door who will ask me to bring them out a bottle of vodka. That goes back to what Senator Boyhan and I said earlier today. There is a massive education and enforcement issue here. Sealing off the off-licence section of a Centra will not stop this problem. It will curtail it, as will pricing, but without the education and enforcement this will not stop.

I admire what the Minister is doing. He should meet the retailers and come back with what he thinks may pass as amendments to this Bill and let us get behind him and pass the Bill before Christmas. That is the way forward.