Galway backs state effort to curb easy availability of cheap alcohol

Date Published: 28-Mar-2012

Teenage drinking isn’t a new phenomenon but easy – and cheap access – to alcohol has clearly exacerbated the problem, which is all too evident on the streets of our cities and towns. Indeed both the Irish and UK Governments agree that this is a crisis which now requires legislation to curb it.

The British Government plans to set minimum alcohol price at 40p per unit and ban the sale of multi-buy discount deals in supermarkets. One unit is 10ml of pure alcohol, equivalent to a measure of whiskey, just over a third of a pint of beer or half a glass of wine – so that plan would see a significant rise in prices at the off licence in particular.

For example, a survey that looked at drink promotions in the UK between December and February of this year shows Tesco and Sainsbury’s offered two-for-£20 deals on 20-pack crates of Strongbow cider – a sale of more than 93 units of alcohol, working out at just 21p per unit. At 40p a unit, the two packs would have to cost a minimum of £37.30.

A deal offering 20 cans of Stella Artois – 44 units of alcohol – for £10 at Asda would become substantially more expensive, with a minimum price of £17.60.

The Government here – and Junior Minister at the Department of Health Roisin Shorthall in particular – also plan to crack down on cheap access to alcohol. And again, one of her proposals is to introduce a minimum price for alcohol.

The move has been welcomed by publicans who have witnesses their profits plummet over the past few years with many of their customers turning to the cheaper options in supermarkets and off licences.

Minister Shorthall has already argued that any clampdown on the sale of cheap alcohol will not have a ‘significant impact’ on jobs. On the contrary, she argued that below-cost selling of alcohol, particularly in supermarkets, was having a ‘very negative impact on Irish society’.

“Alcohol causes huge problems throughout families, throughout communities and in Irish society. It places a huge burden on the health service and it hugely impacts on our competitiveness in terms of days lost in work, so we have no choice but to address the problem of alcohol misuse on Irish society,” she told a conference recently.

Like her UK counterparts, she acknowledged that pricing was a ‘key issue’ and that alcohol had become ‘incredibly cheap’. She cited a recent example in a supermarket of two bottles of wine for €5. She confirmed earlier this year that she is consulting the Attorney General on whether it was legally possibly to introduce minimum pricing.

“It’s a very complex matter, but we’re hoping we will be able to move towards a situation where there will be a minimum price set per ounce of alcohol in any container of alcohol and that will be in addition to the taxes that will be required to be paid,” she added.

But if she preservers with her plan she looks assured of cross-the-board support, given the trend of the debate at a meeting of the County Galway Joint Policing Committee this week, when the ease of access to alcohol in supermarkets and off licences for young people was particularly slammed.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.