‘Plough on’ with setting minimum pricing on alcohol

Publicans have urged Health Minister Leo Varadkar to “plough on” with plans to introduce minimum pricing on alcohol following a European Court of Justice ruling appeared to make the regulations harder to implement.

The Scottish government had sought to fix a minimum price for alcohol in what would be a European first, but faced opposition from the Scotch Whisky Association and others, while companies in the pub trade had supported the measure.

The advocate general to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Yves Bot, yesterday delivered an interim ruling on the issue which said setting a minimum price for alcohol would only be justified to protect public health if no other mechanism, such as tax increases, was found to have worked.