Mike Nesbitt accuses DUP of 'pure deflection' as plan to clamp down on cheap booze is shelved
Stormont’s health minister has accused the DUP of deflection after the party blocked his plans for minimal unit pricing for alcohol – a policy the minister says would save lives.
Mike Nesbitt and other Executive parties rounded on the DUP for blocking the policy at the Executive, meaning that MLAs will not get to have their say on the issue in the Assembly chamber.
However, DUP deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said her party had asked the Health Minister to “bring forward proposals that are based on evidence”.
The policy would target low cost, high strength alcohol – pushing the price up to cut consumption and related social and health problems. But critics argue that it is a blunt instrument which disproportionately impact low income households and fails to cut drinking in those with severe dependency.
Mr Nesbitt told the Assembly that he “regretted” having to make the announcement.
“Minimum unit pricing or MUP has been under discussion for a number of years and has been proposed by multiple health ministers”, he said – adding MUP was “not a panacea” but “would be an effective and targeted way” to address alcohol-related harm.
He added: “Primary legislation had been provisionally scheduled for introduction in 2026-27. Unfortunately, however, despite my efforts to provide information and address any concerns, it has not been possible to secure Executive agreement, and we have now reached the point sadly where legislation for MUP is no longer deliverable in this mandate. This will have an impact on many vulnerable and at-risk people in Northern Ireland.”
The policy is backed by the main five parties in the Assembly, except the DUP.
In response to Mr Nesbitt’s statement , DUP MLA Diane Dodds said that preventing alcohol harm is part of a whole suite of measures and not just one measure.
“To be absolutely clear, it is 18 months since the independent review of tier-4 drugs and alcohol addiction services in Northern Ireland was published, and there is still a lack of targeted detox and rehab services for young people, women and their children. Will you outline, Minister, when you are going to address those situations?”, the health committee member asked.
Mr Nesbitt described that as “pure deflection” by the DUP MLA. Mrs Dodds’s colleague Diane Forsythe said that despite a minimum unit price being introduced in Scotland 2018, “the number of alcohol-specific deaths in Scotland was at its highest level since 2008” – asking how the minister squared that circle.
The health minister said a five-year evaluation of the impact of MUP was commissioned in Scotland, which he said “sets out strong evidence that MUP reduced deaths directly caused by alcohol consumption in Scotland, compared with what would have happened in the absence of MUP.
“The overall reduction was driven by reductions in deaths due to chronic causes. A chronic condition or cause is one that develops slowly and may worsen over time, such as alcoholic liver disease”.
UUP deputy leader Diana Armstrong said it was “deeply regrettable that political arrogance and deadlock have overridden clinical and public health advice” – asking whether the Minister had made his most senior advisers available “to meet the DUP to try to secure a way forward?”
Mr Nesbitt said the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Sir Michael McBride “is at least as passionate as I am about the introduction of minimum unit pricing for alcohol” as he is – adding “I believe that he actually had a meeting with the Democratic Unionist Party”.
Deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly said her party had put questions to the health minister “to demonstrate that this intervention would actually work”.
She said: “Of course, we want to reduce alcohol related deaths, this hits at a particular type of issue, but the vast majority of alcohol for sale would not be impacted by this measure, and alcohol deaths hit on every part of our society. Alcohol misuse is something that is a huge burden for the health service. We have asked the health minister to bring forward proposals that are based on evidence, that are based in something that will work, and we will look at that when that happens.”