The Government is right to believe that our dysfunctional relationship with alcohol can and must be challenged, writes Stephen Rowen
Ireland has been described as a nation in denial in terms of its inability to grasp the reality of the very dramatic increase in alcohol-related harm over the past dozen years. Newspaper columns and news broadcasts abound with evidence that supports the reality that this State has an increasingly dysfunctional relationship with alcohol.
The Government's announcement yesterday on the introduction of an entire set of legislative changes relating to the advertisement of alcoholic beverages and the sponsorship of youth-oriented sporting events is a welcome change for the better. It marks this State's first serious attempt in decades to address what may be our greatest social problem.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, is to be congratulated in his efforts to bring a degree of sensibility to a wildly out-of-control situation. Serious alcohol misuse not only leads to an increase in violence amongst young adults - it also inspires their younger siblings to imitate their destructive example.
Serious alcohol abuse causes significant wear and tear of the major organs of the body. This, in turn, causes havoc when heavy drinkers become patients later in life, thereby overburdening an already overwhelmed healthcare system.
The list of problems extends to both genders and to every age group, as alcohol is truly an equal-opportunity destroyer. We not only lead Europe in the amount of binge-drinking by 15- and 16-year-olds; we also are the only European country in Europe where the girls have caught up with the boys in terms of binge-drinking.
Adults of all ages must find a way to celebrate and cope with the many challenges and stresses that life brings - but without a drink in one hand.
It doesn't really matter whether or not our harmful relationship with alcohol is due to differences in our gene pool or in our culture. Substantial change needs to occur and this process needs to begin now.
Will legislative changes work in this culture? The answer is yes - but only to a degree. Our collective attitude towards alcohol must change profoundly.
Advertising is a powerful force in the Western world, otherwise we would not be spending billions in promoting the products we produce.
The drinks industry would have consumers believe that they only want us to select one brand in preference to another. But the cumulative effect of all alcohol-oriented advertising is to encourage people to increase their overall consumption of alcohol, which is exactly what has occurred.
It would not be fair to imply that changes in advertising alone will create the solution we so badly need. Specialists with a public health perspective have been concerned about the increase in the overall consumption of alcohol as the single most important factor in determining the increase in alcohol-related harm. Reducing the advertising of alcohol will reduce the consumption of alcohol in Ireland.
France and Sweden have enacted total bans on all alcohol-related advertising, with favourable results and reducing consumption will definitely lead to a reduction in harm.
What else do we need to do? The Minister for Justice also appears to be serious about increasing the number of temporary pub closures as a means of forcing publicans to get serious about underage drinking, and also to put pressure on pubs to stop the practice of serving alcohol to someone who is already intoxicated.
Rolling back the pub opening hours to where they were before the summer of 2000 would help. The roll-back on Thursday evening to 11.30 p.m. would help. The introduction of an identity card would help publicans reduce underage drinking.Strict fines for those who violate the law would not only discourage potential offenders, but might also fund the increases in resources the police would require if new legislation was to be properly enforced.
While we are at it, perhaps additional funding for healthcare facilities, such as for the accident and emergency departments of our overcrowded hospitals, would help.
The hospitality industry has benefited greatly from the prosperity of the past decade. Irish people should be justifiably proud of the successes in recent years in effectively competing for the excellence of the products produced by our thriving economy.
But there is a dark side to our prosperity, as President McAleese recently highlighted. That dark side must be carefully examined in the context of too much suffering for Irish people caused by drink.
There are those who would say that nothing can be done, that this problem is simply an unfortunate feature of who we are. Not true.
Our per capita consumption of alcohol has more than tripled in the past 40 years and has increased by about half in the past dozen years. The drinks industry must recognise that we are in serious trouble with drink and that they are part of the problem.
Their co-operation and wholehearted support for change would be much appreciated and is badly needed.
Behavioural change, as mandated by law, does have an impact on the choices made by countless numbers of people. Such change in behaviour eventually results in attitude change.
We have seen profound change occur in so many areas of Irish life in recent decades, many of these reflective of new insights in our understanding about what's healthy and what works. The Government's response yesterday to what is clearly an important part of a national alcohol-related crisis will not make the problem go away, but it is a place to start.
Stephen Rowen is director of the Rutland Centre, a residential centre for the treatment of addictions, including alcohol addiction