Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

How to follow all of that? I thank Senators on all sides of the House for the tone of the debate and for the constructive and engaging manner in which they have approached it. There have been different views, some of which I vehemently disagree with, but we still had a very constructive debate. Everybody here, as I hope I am, is discharging his or her duty, as a legislator, to scrutinise legislation. The significance of this debate and the seven hours we have spent on it is not lost on me. When the Seanad considered this Bill on Committee Stage 13 months ago, it was unable to finish Committee Stage. We are building on the work the Seanad and the former Minister of State, Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, did then and the excellent work of the officials who are sitting behind me who have worked on this Bill for a significant period of time.Today, as the Leader of the Seanad rightly pointed out, the Seanad has accepted 25 amendments to the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill, 20 of them being amendments I introduced and five of which were non-Government amendments. In a cross-party way, we have accepted 25 amendments. We are on section 16 of the Bill and we have dealt with a range of issues in terms of minimum unit pricing, advertising, sponsorship and now the issue of visibility which we have been debating for some time. While not always agreeing, we have managed to do it without dividing this House. I hope that sends out a very powerful message to the people that we are determined to enact a Public Health (Alcohol) Bill. It seems odd to me that we have never before used a public health legislative tool to address the alcohol issue. I know it is late but alcohol consumption in this country is not low. We should not convince ourselves that our relationship with alcohol is appropriate or correct, or nothing to be worried about -"Sure is it not just something we do in Ireland and is it not great?" or "When we bring a world leader to Ireland, do we not see how quickly they can skull a pint of Guinness?" If the new Taoiseach brings a world leader here and decides to go for a jog instead and promote a healthy Ireland, people ridicule him for doing it. Let us not convince ourselves that all is well because it is not. We have a serious problem with alcohol.

Professor Frank Murray, the former president of the RCPI, is still with us here today. He had an editorial in The Lanceton 2 November and it was a very interesting read. He pointed out that Ireland has become the fourth heaviest drinking nation in the OECD in terms of the quantity of alcohol consumed. We now rank joint third for binge drinking in an analysis of 194 nations by the World Health Organization and the Health Research Board found in 2014 that the average drinker in this country drinks the equivalent of 46 bottles of vodka, 130 bottles of wine or 498 pints of beer each year. We have a problem.

I can inform Senator McDowell that is why I intend to put forward radical solutions. We can agree or disagree as to the effectiveness of what I am proposing, but there is an onus on me as the current incumbent in this office to put forward solutions. This is having a really serious effect, with three people dying every day in this country as a result of drinking alcohol. One death per day is due to poisoning or trauma and two deaths are due to chronic conditions. It is having all the knock-on effects that people rightly talk about in relation to the health service, the pressures on public services and issues related to child welfare, and it must be tackled.

I thank Senator Martin Conway for his point about the Guinness Christmas advertisement, as though we could not have a happy Christmas in this country without some sort of outdated advertisement putting Guinness's stamp all over it. It is pathetic and stupid. It is the most ridiculous argument I have ever heard. He is correct. How many families have their Christmas destroyed every year, and many other days, due to alcohol problems in this country? I assure Senator Kelleher that I will hold my nerve. I will leave the Seanad shortly, I hope, on the conclusion of Committee Stage, although I had better not get ahead of myself.