Madam, - Your Editorial on under-age drinking (June 14th) is likely to add confusion rather than clarity to the debate on this alarming and contentious issue.
Your newspaper seems to favour a two-tier system for dealing respectively with rural and urban off-licences, acknowledging that those in major towns are unlikely to be readily identifiable as the direct source of supply to under-age drinkers. This is not the answer. Nor is a highly simplistic initiative such as putting a label on the alcohol container or package.
The National Off-Licence Association has repeatedly highlighted that attempting to directly link the original source of retail supply to the end user, especially when the despicable practice of irresponsible adults buying drink on behalf of the under-aged is prevalent, is both unworkable and misconceived. This applies equally to urban and rural retailing. The proposal to introduce labelling on every item of packaging is meaningless where adults (and the legislation identifies 18-year-olds as adults) make purchases on behalf of under-18s, or where the latter get their alcohol supplies from their own homes.
We agree that the rapid increase in alcohol sales from convenience stores, including petrol stations, is a cause of concern. But surely the way to deal with this is through regulation of licences, rather than the deregulation regime favoured by this and the previous Government (although identified by the Minister for Health as a serious influence on under-age drinking).
The vast majority of off-licence owners act with thorough responsibility and have absolutely no interest in selling to the under-aged persons. Indeed, our association has been applying itself to the concept of responsible trading for many years past and has undertaken many initiatives to discourage under-age drinking.
The answer to this problem lies in fostering a greater degree of responsibility among parents, among adults in general and among young people themselves, not in sticking labels on packages.
Meanwhile we still await some meaningful legislation to deal with this growing problem, which is not helped by the continuing absence of a mandatory ID card. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN SHIEL,
Chairman, National
Off-Licence Association,
Dublin 6.