Putting up the price of alcohol "isn't going to do anything" to sort out the issue of problem drinking, former government minister Shane Ross says.
It comes as figures show Ireland is the most expensive country in the European Union to buy alcohol.
Eurostat research released in June shows the prices being charged here are more than double the EU average.
Across Europe, only Norway and Iceland are more expensive.
On The Hard Shoulder, Shane Ross spoke about his own past problems with alcohol - and why he doesn't think price makes a difference when it comes to problem drinking.
He said: “I can remember when I was drinking far too much, 35 years ago… price didn’t really influence me at all. I realised it was a revenue raiser for the State… but as a drinker, I could never really tell you the price of a pint.
“I could tell you I wanted one, and I could take an awful lot of them. But I can never recall having said ‘my god, the price has gone up… I’m not going to drink as a result'. I needed it, I wanted it, and kept going.
“I don’t think it’s going to do anything to sort out the problem of problem drinkers… I don’t think it’s going to help the drink driving problem."
Mr Ross compared it to drug addiction, saying people who have such addictions "don't worry too much about the price" as they simply must have the drug in question.
He said the State puts up the price of alcohol to increase their own revenue, as well as alcohol being an "easy target".
In terms of his own drinking, he explained: “It was affecting my home life, and my work quite seriously. My output energy was reduced dramatically.
“I never went to Alcoholics Anonymous or anything like that… I just knew I was drinking much, much too much and it was accelerating.”
He suggested you can't actually stop somebody who is intent on drinking.
He pointed to his own ministerial efforts to combat drink driving, saying one of the only avenues available to him as a minister was to increase penalties.
