TOPIC:

"Andrew":zrp35gfl wrote: What is Spain doing right that Ireland is (supposedly) doing wrong?[/quote:zrp35gfl]
Societal relationship with drink.

Legal age is 16 in Malta, yet the kids drink feck all.

Made worse here by a load of barmy laws like pubs all having to close at the same time.

"Andrew":2lxxi3sz wrote: What is Spain doing right that Ireland is (supposedly) doing wrong?[/quote:2lxxi3sz]I think this[/url:2lxxi3sz] has a lot to do with it. They don't treat alcohol as a problem the way we do, and as a result it isn't one.

"TheBeerNut":32k59thj wrote: They don't treat alcohol as a problem the way we do, and as a result it isn't one.[/quote:32k59thj]
I take the way we treated the mayhem of ejecting thousands of people onto the streets at the same time due to fixed closing hours as an indication of our ability to deal with problems.

Instead of abolishing or staggering closing times we deregulated the taxi industry.

Price will influence where people buy their alcohol and what alcohol they will buy, but not how much.

Poor people are more likely to have alcohol problems than rich people.
Countries with high alcohol taxation have more problem drinking than countries with low alcohol taxation.
Raise the tax on alcohol and consumption may go up or down, meaning that other factors have more impact than price.

Add this together and you will see that price inflation does not work as a method of controlling problem drinking.

On under age drinking, I see an assumption that this is being done on cheap supermarket cans of beer, so I would like to make a point or two.

1. Beer sales have been in decline to over two decades.
2. Supermarkets are among the most compliant alcohol retailers in Ireland, with most insisting on an over 21 age limit and asking staff to check ID on anyone who looks under 25. I have seen this done a lot.
3. The beverage of choice for the young ne'er-do-well about town seems to be a bottle of something sweet and blue. When it comes to the hip teen about town, fashion has more to do with alcohol choice than price, as far as I can see.

The stopping of people who look underage and checking ID is strong in the supermarkets,thats fact,the college students (trainee drinkers all <!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt="" title="Rolling Eyes" /><!-- s:roll: --> )are very fond of anything cheap and still buy bucky alot.

&amp;quot;sbillings&amp;quot;:h8or84kn wrote: Price will influence where people buy their alcohol and what alcohol they will buy, but not how much. [/quote:h8or84kn]

Nailed it !

If I be so bold as to tease that out ...

People are using the supermarkets to buy big quantites of cheap low quality beer.

&amp;quot;sbillings&amp;quot;:h8or84kn wrote: Add this together and you will see that price inflation does not work as a method of controlling problem drinking.
[/quote:h8or84kn]

I think we are missing the point here. I am interested in how this law (if passed) impacts beoir, craft beer and craft beer choice.

I think this would actually assist microbrewies is selling beer and helping them compete with the big boys.

Now I know people will argue that when a can of fosters and a bottle of dungarven are on the shelf that Joe Public is going to select one regardless of cost - but lets ask the question - imagine that the can of fosters was 1.95 and the bottle was 2.30 - now all of a sudden the fosters lad is thinking - jeasus its only a few cents more...

At the moment there is no competition on price and this is bad.

FYI - I do agree with most points on underage drinking and also points on using tax to tackle people with drinking problems