Centra Children's Allowance Day Special Offer

The government has strongly condemned some Centra shops for running a Children's Allowance Day Special offer leaflet, which included alcohol at discount prices. Minister of State Róisín Shortall, T.D., said "It is deeply disturbing that a retailer would promote alcohol in this way. Alcohol causes almost 90 deaths every month, is responsible for a quarter of injuries presenting to our emergency departments and is a trigger in one third of domestic abuse cases."

Centra asked stores to withdrawn the promotion. Senator Avril Power, Fianna Fáil, also condemned the promotion as "shameful". She said “I am genuinely shocked to see a respected company and brand name like Centra associated with such a cynical and reckless promotion. Retailers have a duty to ensure alcohol is marketed in a responsible fashion”.

Fine Gael T.D., Regina Doherty, has called for the ending self-regulation in the industry stating that it is not working as seen by this promotion. She said "Retailers have repeatedly shown that they are incapable of acting responsibly when it comes to the sale of alcohol."