Sir, – Those advocating minimum alcohol pricing are mostly the middle-aged and middle-class, who do not really care about an increase of a few euro on their weekly bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Minimum pricing has the most effect on those least able pay like the unemployed, students and people on low incomes; who are as entitled as anyone else to enjoy a few drinks at the end of the week.
In Spain and Italy you can pick up a bottle of wine for two euros and they don’t have a problem with binge drinking. Róisín Shortall has taken the cultural problem of binge drinking in Ireland, which I have no doubt won’t be overly influenced by pricing, and turned it into a class issue. – Yours, etc,