Sir, - The recent attempts by the Minister for Health, Micheal Martin, to link attempts to curb under-age drinking with liberalising the licensing laws are at best misguided, and at worst an absolute disgrace. The limits on the numbers of places to obtain alcohol have nothing to do with under-age consumption of alcohol. Rather this is due to lack of enforcement of the minimum age limit on consuming alcohol.
Mr Martin seems to be reading off the script of the Dublin pub cartel, the Licensed Vintners Association, which immediately welcomed his disgraceful comments. This is the same cartel whose members all put up their prices within a couple of days of each other and who vastly overcharge for drinks. You are even overcharged if you decide not to drink - a glass of Coca-Cola costing 45p in a supermarket costs £1.60 in a pub, nearly 400 per cent more.
Furthermore, the Intoxicating Liquor Act 2000 is fundamentally flawed. It provides that the only way new Dublin pubs can be introduced is by depriving rural areas of their pubs - centres of social life in rural communities.
The time has come for complete liberalisation of the number of licensed premises, together with enforcement of age limits and the encouragement of responsible drinking by young people. Only then will we get cheaper prices. Only then will the drain of licences from rural to urban areas be stopped. Only then will young people drink responsibly, as our counterparts on the Continent do. - Yours, etc.,
Ronan Deegan, PRO, Young Progressive Democrats, UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4.