I would like to ask about the proposed section 21(3) of the sale of the alcohol Bill 2022, which deals with the issues that are facing publicans in this country around the value of their licences. I am hearing repeatedly from publicans in my own area, particularly those I met recently in Mitchelstown in north Cork, about the huge concerns within the Vintners Federation of Ireland and within this trade about the future value of their licences. Unfortunately, the proposed changes will have huge impacts on family publicans and the Government needs to look at this issue to see if there is a fairer way of protecting the value of licences. As it currently stands, if one wants to buy a licence, one has to be extinguished as a consequence. The deregulation will impact this and could cost family-run pubs in this country hundreds of thousands of euros. There has been a significant decline in valuations over the past 15 years and it is something we must protect for rural Ireland.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The general scheme of the Bill has been published by the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee. There will be a process of engagement, including, of course, with the relevant Oireachtas committee during the pre-legislative scrutiny phase. I anticipate that all the stakeholders that the Deputy referenced will be given an opportunity by the committee to make their views known, to come before the committee and to make submissions. It will then be a matter for the members of the committee to form a view on balance as to the appropriate way forward. That report will then come to the Minister for a decision.