Parties support minimum pricing for drink

The majority of the Oireachtas health committee has backed proposals to introduce minimum pricing for alcohol.

The recommendation — supported by all parties except Sinn Féin — will be a boost to junior health minister Roisín Shortall as she tries to convince the Cabinet to back the radical measure.

Sinn Féin thinks the Government should use taxation if it wants to increase prices.

The committee will publish today its report on the misuse of alcohol and other drugs, which is the culmination of extensive hearings with interested bodies over the last number of months.

According to the report, the committee:

* Wants a ban on advertisements promoting below-cost bargains in supermarkets and off-licences (such as 24 bottles for €20).

* Calls on the Government to consider an outright ban on alcohol advertising on social networking sites.

* Wants the Government to replace the current voluntary code on the separation of alcohol from other items in retail stores with a statutory code.

* Calls on the Government to end the current practice of refunding supermarkets VAT on alcohol sold at a loss.

The committee does not come down against alcohol advertising in general and does not make any recommendations calling for an end to sponsorship of sporting bodies or competitions by drink companies.

Prominent sponsorships include the part-sponsorship by Guinness of the senior hurling championship and the Irish rugby team, and Heineken’s sponsorship of the rugby European Cup.

In relation to illegal or prescription drugs, the committee is calling for legislation criminalising the importation of cannabis seeds, tighter controls on the prescription of benzodiazepines (minor tranquillisers) and the implementation of the drug rehabilitation strategy.

All these recommendations were based on consensus across all parties.

The only area where consensus was not reached was on the issue of minimum pricing, with Sinn Féin disagreeing.

Sinn Féin senator David Cullinane, who sits on the committee, confirmed to the Irish Examiner last night that the party did not agree on minimum pricing.

“We agree with 95% of the document. All the parties agree on the need to reduce alcohol consumption, but the one issue we did not agree on was minimum pricing,” he said.

“We don’t believe there is enough evidence to show that minimum pricing will reduce consumption across the population. Our concern is that the extra revenue will stay with the supplier.

“Our alternative is that if the Government is looking at pricing that taxation on alcohol is the way to go. That way the money goes to the exchequer, which should then go on education,” said Mr Cullinane.

Since last September, Ms Shortall, who is minister of state for primary care, has said she wanted to introduce minimum pricing.

She is due to bring the long-awaited report of the national substance misuse steering group to the Cabinet in the coming weeks and publish it soon after.