Ireland has had a long and sometimes difficult association with alcohol, stated Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health, in his foreword to the recently published report on a National Substance Misuse Strategy.
Dr Holohan, who is also Chairman of the Steering Group that compiled the latest report, explained the basis of this difficult association.
“Alcohol plays a complex role in Irish society. It is associated with many aspects of Irish social and cultural life and is generally consumed for enjoyment, relaxation and sociability.
The pub often plays an important role in community life and is an attraction for tourists.
“More broadly, alcohol plays a significant role in the Irish economy by generating employment, tax income and export income.”
Within the report, it is noted that the alcohol industry provided about 50,000 whole-time equivalent jobs in 2008. The alcohol manufacturing industry had a turnover of almost €3 billion that same year and also generated jobs and activity in other sectors.
Again in 2008, alcohol manufacturing and retail was responsible for providing €2 billion in VAT and excise revenues to the State.
Yet alcohol was also responsible for at least 88 deaths each month that year and therein lies the difficulty.
The Steering Group’s report detailed that alcohol is responsible for 2,000 beds being occupied every night in Irish acute hospitals, one-quarter of injuries presenting to emergency departments and over half of attendances to specialised addiction treatment centres.
In 2007, alcohol-related illness cost the healthcare system €1.2 billion, broken down as €500 million in the acute hospital sector, €574 million in GP and allied health services and €104 million in mental health services.
According to the report, the Steering Group weighed the benefits of the alcohol industry to the Irish economy against the resultant health and social harms caused by alcohol use and misuse and decided that the burden of health harms demanded measures to protect public health.
The resulting report from the Group made 45 recommendations intended to minimise the possibility and incidence of alcohol-related harm.
These include recommendations to increase the price of alcohol so that it is less affordable, the introduction of a “social responsibility” levy on the drinks industry
as well as a structural separation of alcohol from other products in supermarkets.
One of the more controversial recommendations is that drinks industry sponsorship of sport and other large public events is phased out by 2016, which caused members of government, including Transport, Sport and Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar and Arts Minister Jimmy Deenihan, to voice their concern.
The Group recommends that alcohol sponsorship is prohibited in any sporting competition, league or event in which under-18s take part; any event where 25 per cent or more of the audience is likely to be comprised of under-18s and in any event involving mechanically-propelled vehicles, such as motor racing.
Among events sponsored by the alcohol industry which garner attention from under-18s are the Heineken European Rugby Cup, and the Guinness sponsorship of the GAA hurling championship.
At the launch of the report, Dr Holohan commented: “We need to break the sense of relationship between participation in sport and the access that can sometimes provide for advertising of alcohol and consumption of alcohol, in particular to younger people.”
Speaking to IMN recently, member of the Steering Group and public health specialist Professor Joe Barry, said getting the recommendations implemented will be a problem.
“It’s really the responsibility for the Department of Health and it’s up to Dr Reilly and Róisín Shortall to persuade their political colleagues who might not be as enthusiastic about the recommendations made in the report.”
