https://www.irishnews.com/news/politics/dup-blocking-stormont-minimum-alcohol-pricing-policy-say-senior-executive-sources-3PKI5YBCR5BOXEHHDTQJ2HQJF4/

The party that once railed against the consumption of the ‘devil’s buttermilk’ is resisting the health minister’s efforts to curb the sale of cheap drink

By John Manley, Politics Correspondent
April 18, 2025 at 6:00am BST

The DUP is blocking efforts to introduce a minimum price for alcohol, according to senior sources in the Stormont executive.

The party, once synonymous with temperance culture and opposition to what its former leader Ian Paisley termed “the devil’s buttermilk“, has said it has “concerns about the limited evidence of the positive impact of this policy in tackling problem drinking”.

The sources’ claims come as former DUP health minister Jim Wells told The Irish News that he encountered resistance from party colleagues when he previously sought to progress measures aimed at reducing alcohol-related deaths and hospital admissions.

Mr Wells said DUP opposition to minimum unit alcohol pricing, which was introduced in Scotland in 2018 and in the Republic in 2022, was a result of lobbying from the drinks industry, along with the policy’s potential impact on “loyalist, working class communities”.

In October, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said he was seeking the backing of his executive colleagues to bring the legislation to the assembly.

The north is the only region in Ireland and Britain yet to implement such a policy.

The UUP leader told Stormont’s health committee that he had asked Department of Health officials to progress work on the introduction of minimum unit pricing for alcohol regulations.

But after more than six months, and despite support from a majority of executive parties, plans to implement the policy have stalled.

A spokesperson for Mr Nesbitt’s department said proposals for minimum unit pricing “will only progress with executive approval and subsequent assembly debate and scrutiny”.

“The minister has distributed a number of papers to executive colleagues detailing the evidence base of the effectiveness of minimum unit pricing and remains hopeful of securing the required support to move to the legislative stage,” the spokesperson said.

But according to two senior executive sources, it is solely DUP ministers that are thwarting efforts to introduce a policy that would mirror those introduced in Britain and across the border.

The party did not comment on the claim that it was responsible for holding-up the introduction of minimum unit pricing.

However, DUP spokesperson did confirm that the party had reservations about the policy.

“During discussions on this issue the party has raised concerns about the limited evidence of the positive impact of this policy in tackling problem drinking,” the spokesperson said.

Mr Wells, who was Stormont health minister for nine months up to May 2015 and is now a member of the TIV, said he didn’t proceed with the policy because at the time the Scottish government was facing a legal challenge from the drinks’ industry.

“I was supportive of the plan as I believe it would help curb binge drinking and associated crime,” he said.

“I was, however, taken to one side by party colleagues and told that such a policy would impact negatively on loyalist, working class communities, while the drinks industry had also voiced its opposition.”

Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson Philip McGuigan said his party supported “measures that reduce alcohol consumption and alcohol related deaths”.

“We consistently argued that minimum unit pricing should have been introduced on an all-island basis before it was introduced in the south in 2022,” he said.

Alliance health spokesperson Nuala McAllister said alcohol-based deaths were “cause for alarm across the world”, as she pointed to recent increases in the north.

“Evidence has shown minimum unit pricing has a significant impact on reducing them and it’s about time we followed other jurisdictions and adopted a similar policy,” she said.

“It’s time we took urgent action to tackle the harmful effects of alcohol and save lives in the process – we are the only part of the UK without minimum unit pricing, and while it isn’t a silver bullet, it has been shown to make a positive difference.”