Minister delays teenage drink law for talks

The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has decided to postpone introducing a measure aimed at curbing teenage drinking into law to enter into further talks with vintners' bodies opposed to it.

The requirement that alcohol sold in an off-licence or as a takeaway from a public house carry a mark identifying its place of purchase will not come into law under the Intoxicating Liquor Act 2003.

Instead it will be the subject of a ministerial regulation, which may be brought into force at a later date.

Off-licence owners condemned the measure, which would allow authorities to detect off-licences supplying drink to minors, when it was announced by Mr McDowell last June.

The National Off-Licence Association said the requirement was "unworkable" and accused Mr McDowell of being "naive in the extreme" to expect that an identifying mark would curb underage alcohol abuse.

Mr McDowell said he was committed to the measure; however, he has decided not to bring it into force along with the other sections of the Liquor Act.

The Act contains a provision which allows the Minister to bring in the requirement by making a regulation on it at a later date.

The Department of Justice does not yet have a date for when the order will come into a force, a spokeswoman said last night, however, it would be entering into talks with vintners' bodies, "over the coming months".

She added that the EU Commission would have to be notified before the requirement could be brought into law.

Vintners' bodies claim it would be unworkable for producers and packagers of alcohol to create separate labels for each individual off-licence which was supplied and that it would be prohibitively expensive for off-licence owners to attach an identity mark at point of sale.

The Minister was aware of their concerns, the spokeswoman said, and he would be willing to consider only labelling "high risk" items.

"It may be the case that expensive bottles of wine would not need to be marked while beer, spirits and alcopops would."

The Department would also be investigating the "practicalities" of attaching the retailer's mark to products, the spokeswoman added.