YOU might well ask what driving to Dublin has to do with the DUP and minimum alcohol pricing.

Well, it was a long time ago but when you get out of your warm bed 10 or 12 times at six in the morning, to drive 300 miles, some memories stick in the head.

Even then, I was long enough in the tooth to know that previous Irish governments had set up committees to address the country’s age-old drinking problem and the growing new problem of drugs.

Those reports had never reached the cabinet and had gathered dust. I had been reassured that this report would be different.

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It wasn’t difficult to identify the alcohol industry around the table. In various guises they were present.

For those who are not familiar with that world, there are a few large international companies who own most of the well-known drinks brands, including the Irish ones.

They argued the bit out on a lot of stuff that they thought might interfere with sales and strung out the meetings six or more months beyond what was necessary.

It was also easy to identify the people who represented the working-class areas of Dublin and elsewhere.

They just wanted any policy that they thought might reduce the enormous human harm they were experiencing in their estates and neighbourhoods.

When it came to minimum unit pricing, I was probably the most vocal.

Not because I consider it a game-changer, but because it has evidence and common sense on its side.

It followed on from a big piece of research in Sheffield University and the government in Scotland had already introduced the legislation.

As the only northern voice, I lobbied for efforts to engage with and include the Department of Health in the north.

It leaves a big gap if prices are different either side of the border. I was assured that all such efforts would be made.

The report of that committee was published some time in 2013. It eventually got to the cabinet, but only after a fair amount of kickback from a surprising number of politicians.

Some of its recommendations have been introduced – at a snail’s pace. One that did survive was minimum pricing, in the south only.

Jump ahead a bit to a conference, not in Dublin this time but in Monaghan.

Two ministers of health, Edwin Poots from the north and James O’Reilly from the south.

A thorough examination of minimum pricing, its strengths and its limitations, addressed by people who have studied the issue.

Both ministers spoke, Edwin Poots reasonably favourably about the issue and again, if memory is correct, acknowledging the need to do somethings about the amount of harm that drink and the drugs are doing and the amount of money it is costing the Department of Health, as well as other departments like Justice and Communities.

I remember being fairly upbeat that there was enough conviction, co-operation and political authority in the room to ensure that the policy would be introduced on both sides of the border.

Probably not quickly, but sometime down the road.

Edwin Poots had already been under pressure over children’s heart services and had come up with an innovative joint north/south plan to address it.

So, I was a bit more than surprised a few months later when Poots commissioned another study, from some university or other, into the effectiveness of minimum pricing.

I am no longer around this stuff on a regular basis, but I don’t think I have ever heard or seen the outcome of that study.

There won’t be many voters thinking of minimum pricing when they mark their ballot paper at the next election.

But I have seen and heard it hinted that by blocking the proposal at the Executive, the DUP are now effectively on the side of the drinks industry. The party of Ian Paisley? Surely not!

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