Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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559. To ask the Minister for Health the status of plans to introduce minimum unit pricing on alcohol; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6081/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Public Health (Alcohol) Bill, including provision for minimum unit pricing, was approved by Government and initiated in the Seanad in December 2015. The aim is to reduce consumption to 9.1 litres of pure alcohol per capita and the harms caused by alcohol. This is part of a suite of measures agreed by the Government in 2013 on foot of the recommendations in the Steering Group Report on a National Substance Misuse Strategy, 2012.

The European Court of Justice ruled on 23 December 2015 on proposals by the Scottish Government to introduce Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP). The Court judgment is broadly in line with the Advocate General’s opinion in October last year when it states that the legislation may be justified on the grounds of the protection of health if it is proportionate to the objective pursued, and cannot be achieved by other measures such as taxation.

A strong and convincing case can be made in favour of MUP over other measures. I believe that MUP is a proportionate measure and the only measure that would effectively target the widespread access to alcohol that is very cheap relative to its strength. This was backed up by the research conducted by Sheffield University which showed that MUP changes behaviour in those most at risk.