Don’t punish moderate drinkers

Already the publicans lobby is on full throttle. Michael Flynn (Minimum alcohol price is smart and may save pubs, Jan 27) attacks the right of supermarkets to sell, and consumers the right to purchase alcohol there.

I accept there is a need for government to retain some measure of regulation in regard to the sale of alcohol, but I emphatically reject Michael Flynn’s suggestion which would herald a return to publicans and off-licence monopolies. Competition leads to better service and quality and reduces prices.

The further proposal from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children (Retail ban would be draconian, Jan 25) for the Government to consider banning the sale of alcohol in supermarkets and garages in an attempt to stop under-age drinking, must rank as one of the most ill-informed and ill-thought-out pieces of proposed legislation the Dáil has ever been asked to consider.

In 2000, following an Oireachtas Committee investigation into the licensed trade, it was recommended that the deregulation of the drinks industry would benefit consumers. Prior to deregulation, pubs and off-licences enjoyed an unhealthy monopoly which resulted in high prices and in some cases mediocre standards. Bringing in these proposed restrictions on the sale of alcohol will deliver consumers back into the arms of monopolies, and more expensive alcohol, once again. It may also deliver those same consumers into purchasing their alcohol across the border.

From the perspective of an older person, I like to be able to purchase my wine, bottle of stout or naggin of malt under the same roof and at the same time as I purchase my groceries. I like to be able to choose my preference in the unhurried manner which supermarkets offer. I do not want the added inconvenience or cost of going elsewhere to purchase my tipple. Also, my supermarket affords me, and I feel sure many others, a degree of anonymity which I would not enjoy visiting a pub or off-licence.

Our legislators are among the highest paid in the world, but these proposals from the Oireachtas are more Luddite than progressive. They display a paucity of imaginative and innovative thinking and the implementation of these proposals will only benefit some special interest groups. The solution to this problem lies in more vigilant parents and rigid enforcement of the law. Why should moderate drinkers, who make up the vast majority of our citizens, be made suffer for the state’s failure to enforce the law?

Like all responsible people, I would like to see an end to underage drinking and all the social ills which accompanies this all-too-prevalent scourge, but it is wrong to scapegoat responsible supermarkets, garages and civilised society for the behaviour of the loutish few in our midst.

Tom Cooper

Knocklyon

Dublin 16