English: The Member is absolutely correct. That's another deficiency of the proposal. There is no direct connection between the sums of money that will be raised and what the Government can spend on trying to target help to those who really need it. Even those who have an occasional drink problem, they're not going to be affected by this very much. The hospital admissions, which always rise at the weekends, where they're related to alcohol as a result of binge drinking on a Friday or a Saturday, those are very unlikely to be altered by the imposition of a minimum price for alcohol. What we should be doing here is looking at where the problem exists and a microsolution to that difficulty. So, this is a very badly designed proposal, and it is a sledgehammer to miss a nut, actually. That's what is proposed here. At 50p per minimum unit, if that's what eventually emerges, it's very unlikely to have any impact upon more than a small number of people. Of course, demand for alcohol is not price inelastic any more than cigarette smoking was not affected by increases in the taxation on tobacco. In order to make any significant inroad upon the problem that the Government adduces as the justification for this proposal, it would have to be a very, very much higher increase than the one that has been suggested. It would be a brave Government indeed that sought to impose a minimum price of, say, £1 per unit on alcohol. I think that would receive a resounding raspberry from the voters. But I object to this proposal because it is particularly targeted at those on lower incomes. Like many of these proposals - like the sugar tax in England is going to affect those at the lower end of the income scale as well - these are all impositions upon people who are having a struggle anyway to make ends meet in life, and it's going to make it very much more difficult for very little, if any, improvement in public health or a diminution of the other social problems that excessive consumption of alcohol brings about, which we all know about. So, it's actually, in many ways, an irrational tax that's proposed - if I can call it a tax for these purposes. Like many of the taxes that we've got in this country, it's very, very badly designed. We've just had a debate about property taxes, which are very badly designed. Here we're deliberately creating another one, rather than inheriting it from our predecessors, as a mass of confusion and counter-productive activity. So, this is not the time when we should be trying to make these impositions upon people who can least afford to deal with them. If we are going to introduce new taxes, they ought to conform to the general canons of taxation, which is that they be well designed, properly targeted and raise reasonable amounts of revenue, or design to achieve in practice the social objectives that they're supposed to, and this proposal will achieve none of those. As Mark Reckless pointed out, the principal beneficiaries of this will be the supermarkets and the shareholders of supermarkets, to the extent that, at the borders, there will be leakage across the border into England. It's not going to be a big problem, generally speaking, but it might well be in north-east Wales, or indeed in south-east Wales as well. Then that's going to be a problem for local traders in those areas. This is something that has been, I think, very badly thought out, and it cannot be administered in a way that will produce the answer to what is accepted as a significant social and health problem. So, I'm afraid it will fail at all levels.
Welsh: Mae'r Aelod yn hollol gywir. Dyna ddiffyg arall y cynnig. Nid oes unrhyw gysylltiad uniongyrchol rhwng y symiau o arian a godir a'r hyn y gallai'r Llywodraeth ei wario ar geisio targedu cymorth i'r rhai sydd ei wir angen. Hyd yn oed y rhai sydd â phroblem yfed achlysurol, nid ydynt yn mynd i gael eu heffeithio lawer iawn gan hyn. Y niferoedd sy'n cael eu derbyn i'r ysbyty, sydd bob amser yn codi ar y penwythnosau, lle maent yn gysylltiedig ag alcohol o ganlyniad i oryfed ar ddydd Gwener neu ddydd Sadwrn, mae'r rheini'n annhebygol iawn o gael eu newid drwy osod isafbris am alcohol. Yr hyn y dylem ei wneud yma yw edrych i weld ble mae'r broblem yn bodoli a datrys yr anhawster hwnnw'n benodol. Felly, mae hwn yn gynnig sydd wedi'i gynllunio'n wael iawn, ac mae'n defnyddio gordd i dorri cneuen mewn gwirionedd. Dyna a gynigir yma. Ar isafbris 50c fesul uned, os mai dyna a ddaw yn y pen draw, mae'n annhebygol iawn o gael unrhyw effaith ar fwy na nifer fach o bobl. Wrth gwrs, nid yw'r galw am alcohol yn cael ei ddylanwadu gan bris fwy nag yr effeithiwyd ar ysmygu sigaréts gan gynnydd yn y dreth ar dybaco. Er mwyn gwneud unrhyw effaith sylweddol ar y broblem y mae'r Llywodraeth yn ei chyflwyno fel cyfiawnhad dros y cynnig hwn, byddai'n rhaid iddo fod yn gynnydd llawer iawn uwch na'r un a awgrymwyd. Llywodraeth ddewr iawn yn wir a fyddai'n ceisio gosod isafbris o £1, dyweder, fesul uned am alcohol. Credaf y byddai'n amhoblogaidd tu hwnt ymhlith y pleidleiswyr. Ond rwy'n gwrthwynebu'r cynnig hwn oherwydd ei fod wedi'i dargedu'n benodol tuag at bobl ar incwm is. Fel llawer o'r cynigion hyn - fel y mae'r dreth ar siwgr yn Lloegr yn mynd i effeithio ar y rhai ar ben isaf y raddfa incwm - mae'r rhain oll yn feichiau ar bobl sy'n ei chael hi'n anodd beth bynnag i gael deupen llinyn ynghyd mewn bywyd, ac mae'n mynd i'w gwneud yn llawer iawn anoddach er mwyn sicrhau ychydig iawn o welliant, os o gwbl, i iechyd y cyhoedd, neu lai o'r problemau cymdeithasol eraill y gwyddom oll amdanynt sy'n cael eu creu drwy yfed gormod o alcohol. Felly, mewn gwirionedd, mewn sawl ffordd, mae'r dreth arfaethedig yn afresymol - os gellir ei galw'n dreth at y dibenion hyn. Fel llawer o'r trethi sydd gennym yn y wlad hon, mae wedi'i chynllunio'n wael iawn. Rydym newydd gael dadl ynglŷn â threthi ar eiddo a gynlluniwyd yn wael iawn. Yma rydym yn mynd ati'n fwriadol i greu un arall, yn hytrach na'n bod yn ei hetifeddu gan ein rhagflaenwyr, fel llwyth o ddryswch a gweithgarwch gwrthgynhyrchiol. Felly, nid dyma'r adeg inni geisio rhoi'r beichiau hyn ar bobl na allant eu fforddio. Os ydym yn mynd i gyflwyno trethi newydd, dylent gydymffurfio â chanonau cyffredinol trethiant, sef eu bod wedi'u cynllunio'n dda, yn targedu'n briodol ac yn codi symiau rhesymol o refeniw, neu wedi eu cynllunio i gyflawni'n ymarferol yr amcanion cymdeithasol y maent i fod i'w cyflawni, ac ni fydd y cynnig hwn yn cyflawni'r un o'r rhain. Fel y nododd Mark Reckless, y rhai a fydd yn elwa fwyaf o hyn fydd yr archfarchnadoedd a chyfranddalwyr archfarchnadoedd, i'r graddau y bydd pobl yn croesi'r ffin i Loegr. Nid yw'n mynd i fod yn broblem fawr, a siarad yn gyffredinol, ond yn sicr, fe allai fod yng ngogledd-ddwyrain Cymru, neu yn ne-ddwyrain Cymru yn ogystal. Wedyn mae honno'n mynd i fod yn broblem i fasnachwyr lleol yn yr ardaloedd hynny. Nid yw hyn wedi cael ei ystyried yn dda o gwbl yn fy marn i, ac mae'n rhywbeth na ellir ei weinyddu mewn ffordd a fydd yn cynnig ateb i'r hyn y derbynnir ei bod yn broblem iechyd a chymdeithasol sylweddol. Felly, mae arnaf ofn y bydd yn methu ar bob lefel.