Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I concur with the comments made by Senators Dolan and Murphy about the significant funding that was received yesterday, in the midlands in particular, through the just transition fund. As much as €5 million was given to specific projects in my own county of Longford and multiple millions of euro was given to others that cross over the area.

I concur with the comments that Senator Burke made about minimum unit pricing of alcohol and the abundance of cheap alcohol that is available at a time when all of the pubs are closed. There is talk of reopening different parts of society. According to media reports in recent days, public houses, which are regulated areas, will not reopen while we allow off-licence sales and, as the Senator Burke said, the sale and consumption of cheap alcohol in an unregulated area, which is causing problems. There is a huge difference between wet pubs in Dublin city centre and those in rural Longford where I am from. If we are not going to allow the pubs to open, which I believe we should, because they are regulated, they are licence holders, and it is up to them to enforce the restrictions that are put in place, none should open. We have seen what happened previously, and we drove alcohol consumption underground. We need to learn from that. I ask that that would be taken on board in the discussions over the next few days.