Soft drinks - Harney fails to see price of greed

Incredible is the only way to describe Tánaiste Mary Harney’s admission that she could not understand why soft drinks could be bought by publicans for 30 cent and sold over the counter for €1.20.

She must be the only person in the country to be so naive as to fail to understand the cause; it is greed and a determination by the Government to fuel it by refusing to impose any semblance of price control.

There is a serious concern, and rightly so, about the high level of alcohol consumption by young people in this country, and although she concurs that it will have major implications for our society and health services, the Tánaiste is not in favour of the Government doing anything practical about it.