West Cork shop owner agrees to stop 'plastic glass promotion' after HSE request

The promotion had allowed customers to buy 24 cans of beer or cider for €30

Colm O’Sullivan, who runs Sam's Gala in Dunmanway in Co Cork, was offering customers 24 plastic glasses for €30 and, in return, they would get a credit note to the value of €47.34 which they could then use to buy a range of items from the shop. The items included 24-packs of 500ml cans of alcohol, with a price tag of €47.34. Picture: Neil Michael

A West Cork shop owner who was running a 'plastic glass promotion' which allowed customers to buy 24 cans of beer or cider for €30 has been asked by the HSE’s Environmental Health Service to stop the practice.

Colm O’Sullivan, who runs Sam's Gala in Dunmanway in Co Cork, was offering customers 24 plastic glasses for €30 and, in return, they would get a credit note to the value of €47.34 which they could then use to buy a range of items from the shop.

These included 24-packs of 500ml cans of alcohol, priced at €47.34. Customers could also use the credit note to buy a range of household items such as mops.

The promotion went viral on social media and before an officer from the HSE’s Environmental Health Service asked him to stop, Mr O'Sullivan says he had sold around 1,920 glasses to customers and the bulk of customers, around 80 people, used their credit note to obtain slabs of alcohol.

He told the Irish Examiner: “I don’t claim to be a legal expert but I did my research and I couldn’t see anywhere which said I could not do what I did.

“However, I have been informed that regardless of what the law on minimum unit pricing says, I have, according to the HSE, not kept within the spirit of the law.

I have been asked to stop and I am doing that.” 

The Government’s minimum unit pricing (MUP) came in on January 4.

As a result, cheap slabs of cans of beer are now a thing of the past, as, under the new system, a floor price has been set for all alcohol products under which they cannot be sold, meaning heavily discounted slabs of 24 cans of beer or cider must now cost in the region of €40.

The offer on alcohol at Sam's Gala, Dunmanway, Co Cork, went viral on social media

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said the measure is designed to reduce the harms caused by the misuse of alcohol and delay young people beginning to consume it.

However, retailers are concerned the new measure will simply drive consumers across the border where such a system has yet to be introduced.

This is what happened in Wales and Scotland, which have introduced minimum alcohol pricing.

While alcohol consumption has dropped in both countries, consumption or the purchase of cheaper alcohol in English areas bordering Scotland and Wales have gone up.

'Glossed over a very serious issue'

Dr Ger McDarby, of the Irish Society of Specialists in Public Health Medicine, said: “While this promotion was offered in a 'tongue in cheek' manner, it glossed over a very serious issue, which is the disproportionate negative impacts of high volume, low-cost alcohol on the least well off in our society that the MUP legislation seeks to redress.

“We as a society need to change our relationship with alcohol. Ireland has the third-highest rate of foetal alcohol syndrome in the world and harmful use of alcohol in this country is responsible for three deaths per day, 88 per month, and over 1,000 per year.

“MUP is a way to begin this change by reducing overall consumption of alcohol, particularly harmful consumption.

“It would be more helpful if retailers supported the aim of this intervention rather than promoting continued harmful consumption of alcohol as well as excess plastic waste.”