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Law bans ‘irresponsible’ drinks promos

editorial image

editorial image

The ban on irresponsible drinks promotions was rubber-stamped by the Northern Ireland Assembly today.

Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland said cheap, fixed price offers would be illegal from next month.

The DUP MLA said the new legislation would help combat the growing binge-drinking culture.

Mr McCausland said: “The ban on fixed price promotions will make this type of promotion which encourages harmful and excessive drinking illegal for the first time.

“These types of promotions encourage young people to buy and consume more alcohol than they normally would and they need to be stopped.”

In January 20-year-old Joby Murphy died after a night out drinking £1 alcoholic shots. He had been at a Snow Patrol concert in Belfast’s Odyssey Arena but fell from a footbridge over the River Lagan while making his way home.

The Murphy family have campaigned tirelessly against cheap drinks offers.

An eight-week public consultation to gauge opinion on the new laws was carried out earlier this year.

Mr McCausland said there had been strong support for change from health professionals and local authorities which are responsible for issuing drink licences.

He also noted there had been cross-party political consensus.

Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey, who chairs the DSD scrutiny committee at Stormont, said: “People are concerned that we do have a binge-drinking culture out there which is very harmful to our broader society but also people who are directly engaged in that.”

Ulster Unionist MLA Michael Copeland welcomed limiting what he called reckless promotions.

Mr Copeland said: “Whilst not wanting to ruin anyone’s fun, people must remember that countless numbers of vodka shots at £1 a time on top of someone who may already be under the influence of alcohol will do very little to make a night better. Rather, by limiting reckless promotions, less people will end up in our accident and emergency units or the cells at the end of an evening.”

Meanwhile, the DSD minister said he had decided against imposing restrictions on the sale of alcohol containing two or more products such as in off-licences.

 

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