Group calls for support on alcohol strategy

THE GOVERNMENT must get fully behind a new strategy to address alcohol misuse, members of the steering group on the issue have said.

The report on a National Substance Misuse Strategy was published yesterday amid questions about levels of Government support and concerns that the drinks industry may persuade legislators against its more radical recommendations.

It calls for a ban on all sponsorship by drinks companies of sporting and large outdoor events, a ban on all outdoor advertising of alcohol, an increase in excise duties on some alcohol products and the introduction of a minimum price per gram of alcohol.

Four members of the Government – Pat Rabbitte, Leo Varadkar, Jimmy Deenihan and Simon Coveney – have expressed concerns about the proposed restrictions on advertising and the phasing out of events sponsorship by 2016.

The steering group was chaired by senior Government officials and had input from the drinks industry as well as health, justice and social interests.

The report calls for the introduction of a “social responsibility” levy on the drinks industry which could be used to help fund sporting events and a reduction in the weekly “safe” number of units of alcohol for women from 18 to 11, and for men from 21 units to 17.

Minister of State with responsibility for primary care Róisín Shortall, who has championed the strategy, gave a brief statement before the main presentation of the report and then left.

A “huge amount of work” had gone into the report which would be a “welcome contribution to the debate which will now get under way on our relationship with alcohol”, she said.

She said she would bring the report to the Oireachtas health committee in coming weeks and draw up a “clear action plan in two or three months on how society deals with alcohol”.

Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer and co-chairman of the steering committee, hoped the report would be “adopted in full” by Government.

Denis Bradley, representative of the voluntary sector on the National Advisory Committee on Drugs and a member of the steering committee, said all politicians must now “grab this report”.

“A lot of these recommendations have been put to government before and government has walked away from them. Politicians must look at the report in its totality and not fight for their own narrow interests, whether that’s in communications, transport or sport.

“This report is not about stopping drinking, or the nanny state. This is about reducing the amount of alcohol we consume, which is outrageously high.”

The average Irish adult consumed 11.9 litres of pure alcohol in 2010, equivalent to 482 pints of lager, 125 bottles of wine or 45 bottles of vodka.

Mr Bradley called on the four Ministers who had raised concerns, and Minister for Health James Reilly, to state their support for “the thrust of the report”.

MAIN FINDINGS

* Some 2,000 hospital beds per night are occupied by people with alcohol-related illness or injury

* The average Irish adult drank 11.9 litres of pure alcohol in 2010, equivalent to 482 pints of lager, 125 bottles of wine or 45 bottles of vodka. If non-drinkers, which account for 19 per cent of adults, were removed, the average consumption was 56 bottles of alcohol per year.

* More than half of 16-year-olds have been drunk and one in five drinks weekly.

* Alcohol was responsible for 88 deaths per month in 2008 – not including deaths which were due to alcohol in people who were not alcohol-dependent.

* The report aims to reduce the overall amount of alcohol consumed and to move a greater proportion back into pubs - considered a more controlled environment and one which provides more jobs and public revenue.

* It also calls for an end to cheap alcohol promotions in pubs; an end to price incentives to buy multiple containers of drink in shops; enforcement of regulations to separate sale and display of alcohol from grocery items and the labelling of alcohol with calorific content, grams of alcohol and health impacts.