Ray Butler (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will let the Senator use his imagination. On structural separation in the multiples, if mammy and daddy bring Johnny and Mary to the supermarket and want to buy a bottle of wine, then Johnny and Mary have to go with them through the structural separation and into "Funderland". That is what will happen. It will become a Funderland. The multiple will get out its advertising team and make it so attractive to go in behind those barriers that it will be unbelievable. The kids will want to go in every time they visit the supermarket. That is what multiples will do. They do it every time people go to the cash register. They put things in front of us so that we will grab them and take them with us. Do Members think they will do anything different when a structural wall goes up around the alcohol? No way. They will get in the advertising teams to which they pay millions and get it up and running.

What I call small community shops as opposed to small retail shops are the backbone of rural Ireland. The men and women who own them are heavily scrutinised when it comes to the sale of any alcohol because they have to deal with Johnny and Mary's mammy and daddy if someone under age gets a bottle of vodka and is later found, God forbid, intoxicated in a field or on someone's property where they should not be. Those shop owners scrutinise everything sold on their premises and do not need blinds or fridges to hide anything. As Senator McDowell said, it is ridiculous to have to open a cabinet or pull over a blind. It might mean the shopkeeper has to get in extra staff to do that job while he or she is looking after the cash register. It makes no sense. I am glad common sense has prevailed. The real issue is minimum unit pricing and the education of young people about alcoholism and alcohol in general. This debate has gone on and on. Taking alcohol out of view will not stop anything. I could hardly believe it when Senator Paddy Burke said that only 8% of all alcohol sales took place in small community shops. Therefore, I welcome what the Minister has done today. I ask him to please listen to the owners of these small community shops because they need our help. They will scrutinise every bottle of alcohol sold in their communities because it is their businesses and survival about which they are concerned.