Ridiculous alcohol Bill will cost us thousands, say grocers

SMALL retailers are furious at the forthcoming alcohol Bill, which they say will cost them thousands and drive their customers towards larger stores.

Health Minister Simon Harris had promised to table amendments to the Public Health Alcohol Bill after facing a revolt from TDs and senators within his own party over the impact it is set to have on small businesses.

But the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association has blasted the amendments, due to be debated in the Seanad on Wednesday, as ‘ridiculous.’

The Bill proposes a ‘booze curtain’ will be erected in stores, effectively forcing retailers to segregate alcohol to a different area in the shop and keep it in a closed storage unit.

The product cannot be visible to the customer and must remain closed when not in use, the legislation says. For smaller retailers, it has been decided that while alcohol may remain on display, the Bill will insist that it must be confined to a maximum of two storage units, measuring no more than one cubic metre.

CEO of the CSNA, Vincent Jennings, told the Mail the move would cost retailers anywhere between €3,000 and €40,000 and smaller shops are being disproportionately affected as they make up only 5% of alcohol sales. Mr Jennings said: ‘It’s laughable apart from the fact that it’s so serious. We’re most concerned that this is going to cause significant additional costs to our members... Even the wording in the amendment talking about cubic metres – there isn’t a retailer in the country that actually considers anything such as cubic metres. We would never consider anything in the measurement of cubic metres.

‘What we do believe is that there will be a migration from the smaller stores into the larger ones, who are not going to be caught in the same way, because they can just cover over the entrance area into the area where alcohol sales are being made, and the product won’t have to be invisible there.’

Mr Jennings warned that if the legislation passed it will give retailers only a year to comply, which would grant a license for shopfitters ‘to gouge us’.

He said: ‘If the amendment passes, the majority of people will have to go ahead and kit out their store.

‘Many people have had to renegotiate their loans not once but twice, they’re just coming out of the recession and things are beginning to turn around. We’re trying to bring in extra employment.

‘The cost of that, and having to go back to your bank and saying “my cash flow is going to be down this year because I’m going to have to invest five, 10, 20 or 40 thousand euro” - depending on the size of the store – that’s going to be a significant cost to the retailers.’

He added: ‘The smaller retail (stores), they represent less than 5% of the total alcohol sales, and yet they’re causing such a disproportionate

‘Significant costs for retailers’

additional expense upon us.’

The Bill is up for debate this week, but has already be criticised by a number of Fine Gael senators including Michelle Mulherin, Tim Lombard and Paddy Burke.

However, Eunan McKinney from Alcohol Action Ireland says the legislation, which doctors say will save lives, is badly needed.

‘The Public Health Alcohol Bill has been sitting languishing in the Oireachtas for the last two years,’ he said. ‘In the context of the legislation, it’s a very modest piece of legislation. It endeavours to bring about a reduction in the overall consumption of alcohol over a period of years, and part of that process is to bring in a set of measures which would address the availability and intrusive visibility of alcohol in store.’

It also has the backing of the Vintners Federation of Ireland which it says will finally address alcohol as a public health issue.