WHEN IT comes to the demon drink, Irish consumers have never had it so cheap. Whether this should be celebrated or curtailed will be at issue later this month when a national strategy on substance misuse is published after two years of wrangling.
In one corner will be health professionals, charities dealing with the consequences of Ireland’s problematic relationship with drink, and Government Ministers, particularly Minister of State with responsibility for Primary Care, Róisín Shortall. In the other will be the retail giants who use cheap booze to help coax shoppers through their doors and a multibillion-euro drinks industry that advocates responsible drinking while profiting handsomely from the more irresponsible kind.
Shortall believes Irish drinkers “lost the run of themselves” during the boom. Drinking of alcohol is costing more than €3.5 billion a year once chronic diseases, injury and other societal ills are taken into account, she says.
A briefing note prepared for Minister for Health Dr James Reilly last year said adults drink “in a more dangerous way than nearly any other country”, while Irish children “drink from a younger age and are drinking more than ever before”. It described alcohol as “a contributory factor in half of all suicides and accounts for up to 10 per cent of bed days in hospitals, while alcohol-related road accidents cost an estimated €530 million in 2007”.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Shortall says the details of the overhaul of public health legislation will emerge at the end of this month when the National Substance Misuse Strategy steering group publishes its report. She also indicates that controls on pricing and advertising and more strict enforcement of existing laws are inevitable.
The steering group was set up at the end of 2009 to establish a new approach for dealing with substance misuse. Almost immediately, a row broke out. The group included representatives from the drinks industry, who objected to their addictive but legal drug being ranked alongside addictive but illegal drugs. Other members of the group objected to vested interests being part of their cohort and playing a role in developing policy.
This week, several committee members privately accused the industry of delaying the report’s publication by refusing to sign off on key elements. “To say they spent the two years raising objections and dragging their heels would be putting it mildly,” one source says.
ACCORDING TO ITSwebsite, the Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland has "excellent access to Government Ministers and senior public officials". It stoutly rejects allegations it has slowed the process and says it had been "professional and constructive" throughout.
“We were asked to participate, and we have a right to a voice,” its spokeswoman Kathryn D’Arcy says. She accepts there were some recommendations in the report the group opposed – most notably concerning pricing and advertising – “but to say we obstructed the group is terribly unfair”.
The Government is also preparing a more ambitious range of measures in a Public Health Act to be drawn up this summer, but so far pricing has dominated the headlines. Among the proposals will be rules governing the lowest price at which alcohol can be sold. This minimum cost will depend on the number of units of alcohol a container holds – and if the level is set at 50 cent per unit, then the lowest price for a bottle of wine containing eight units will be €4.
Advocates say this approach targets heavy drinkers and young people who are more likely to consume cheap alcohol, but D’Arcy claims many of the recommendations, if adopted, will have a negative impact on “moderate drinkers”.
Fiona Ryan of Alcohol Action Ireland, the national charity for alcohol-related issues, rejects this claim. She says minimum pricing would not see prices increase for most people and would have no impact on a mid-priced bottle of wine or a 500ml can of beer selling for €1.50. “It is easy to scaremonger about rising prices, but that is misleading,” she says.
Over the last quarter of a century the cost of almost everything has climbed – except wines, beers and spirits in off-licences. Before the euro changeover in 2002 a can of Budweiser in an off-licence cost about £1.55 (€1.97). In an off-licence on Dublin’s North Circular Road last Monday, seven cans cost just €10 – or €1.42 each. Alcopops have fallen even more sharply. When launched, bottles of these high-sugar, high-alcohol drinks, indisputably targeted at younger drinkers, sold for about €3 a pop. Bottles in Dublin now cost less than €1.50. Bottles of cheap vodka, meanwhile can be found for less than €10.
Prices have continued to fall as just five retailers, controlling 95 per cent of all the carry-out trade, have competed. Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Centra, Spar and Costcutter have carved up a huge slice of the drinks pie, with Tesco now accounting for more than 50 per cent of carry-out business in Ireland.
Shortall says she has never discussed pricing with the industry or retailers. “I have consciously not engaged with them. Their view is that they have to make a profit whatever way they can. I have drawn attention to the damage alcohol is doing, but they persistently sell it below cost and there is no indication that they are willing to address the issue responsibly.
“They say they are taking the hit, but we as consumers are paying both through the high price paid for alcohol abuse in this country and we are paying in our supermarkets. Because if the retailers are using alcohol as a loss leader, then the price of groceries has to be higher. I would prefer to see price wars on groceries instead of alcohol,” she adds.
The Government is to try to target tax anomalies which allow retailers to claim VAT rebates if they choose to sell a product at a loss. “I have been in touch with Michael Noonan about this. If a company is deliberately selling a product below cost then I do not think they should be allowed claim tax back on that product.”
Alcohol displays are also to be targeted. “It is very hard to go into a big supermarket without having alcohol displays in your face, while smaller shops have all these window displays promoting cheap alcohol. I want to see those removed,” Shortall continues.
LEGISLATION DOES EXISTwhich could control the worst excesses of some retailers. The Intoxicating Liquor Act passed in 2008 covered alcohol displays – but the last government allowed the retail industry to adopt a voluntary code instead. "I am not satisfied that the code is working. It is very easy to find examples of it being breached. We do need to enforce the law more rigorously," she adds, particularly in relation to adults buying alcohol for children. "There have been very few prosecutions and I would like to see that changed."
While legislative changes will be far-reaching, they will not be enough: a cultural shift is needed. “I think we all got into bad habits during the boom and now if you call to someone’s house you are as likely to be offered a glass of wine as a cup of tea. We have an unhealthy relationship with drink and it is clearly a cultural issue. We turn to alcohol very easily – whether to drown our sorrows or to celebrate.”
Price controls: UK plans for tackling the problem
THE PROBLEMof cheap alcohol is also being tackled in the UK, where similar measures to those to be unveiled in the Republic are being considered.
The Scottish government is to the fore in trying to introduce minimum pricing: it wants the unit price of alcohol to be set at 45p, which would mean the cheapest a bottle of wine could sell for would be £4.23 (€5.07) while a bottle of whisky would cost at least £12.60 (€14.31). A Scottish National Party attempt to pass such a proposal failed during the last parliament.
British prime minister David Cameron wants to develop a scheme in England to prevent the sale of alcohol at below 40p to 50p a unit in shops and supermarkets. The British government is reportedly seeking a radical “big bang” approach. Details are likely to be published in its alcohol strategy next month.
According to a recent study carried out in Britain, a minimum price of 30p per unit would prevent 300 deaths a year when the system is well established, while a price of 40p per unit would save about 1,000 early deaths. A 50p ceiling was said to have the potential to save as many as 2,000 premature deaths each year. There is much support in the medical community in the UK for the moves, although some in the business community and politicians have expressed concern it might breach EU law.
