Minister of State for Primary Care, Deputy Alex White (Lab), is to bring concrete proposals to the Cabinet next week on long awaited legislation to curb alcohol abuse.

The junior minister at the Department of Health told this newspaper that he intends to go ahead with proposals that include plans to introduce minimum pricing for alcohol products and “significant measures” to curb corporate sponsorship in sport.

Last year, Minister White’s predecessor, Labour Party colleague Roisin Shortall TD, drafted proposals for Government that included minimum prices for alcohol products and the phasing out of sports sponsorship by drinks companies.

The proposals proved a source of division between the coalition parties as some of Deputy Shortall’s coalition colleagues in Fine Gael strongly opposed the plans.

Deputy Shortall eventually resigned last September following the controversy over how Health Minister James Reilly added two primary care centres in his Dublin North constituency to a list of locations being considered by the State.

Minister White said the proposals he intends to present to Cabinet on curbing alcohol abuse will be based upon those initiated by Deputy Shortall last year.

“The proposals that Roisin Shortall had put together in a draft memo are the proposals that I am still working on,” he said. “The most important ones for me are price, access, by which I mean access to alcohol in retail stores and how it’s presented, where it is presented in the store and the extent to which it is separated from other products.

“I am certainly in favour of minimum pricing and it will feature in the proposals. Then there are issues with marketing and sponsorship. We have significant proposals to make in each of those different areas.

“The biggest concern is marketing that is visible to children and young people,” he added.