Campaigns

Minimum Pricing

Cheap booze at ‘pocket money’ prices costs us all. In Ireland, a woman can reach her low risk weekly drinking limit for under €7 and a man for under €10: that’s an average of one hour worked on minimum wage. Alcohol-related harms cost the country €3.7 billion a year in health, crime/ public order and other costs such as work-place absenteeism and we’re all paying the price. If we want to reduce alcohol-related harms then we need to reduce consumption and that means tackling the price of alcohol. To find out more about Action Ireland’s Pre Budget Submission 2012 and minimum pricing click here. To find out more about minimum pricing click here.

The following organisations support minimum pricing: Barnardos, Focus Ireland, ISPCC, The Irish Cancer Society, The Irish Heart Foundation, The Irish Medical Organisation, the North West Alcohol Forum, Rape Crisis Network Ireland, Ballymun Local Drugs Task Force,the National Youth Council of Ireland, Fóroige, the National Youth Development Organisation and the No Name! Club If you are an organisation or an individual then please register your support here

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Have We Bottled It? Alcohol Marketing and Young People

Alcohol is one of the most heavily marketed products on our shelves with a total market value of approximately €6 billion in Ireland each year. Alcohol marketing, of which pricing is a key component, targets young people and influences their drinking.

Research commissioned by Alcohol Action Ireland and carried out by leading market-research firm Behaviour & Attitudes reveals that young people are being exposed to alcohol brands from a young age.

Among 16 to 21-year-olds, alcohol ads represented five out of their top ten favourite ads. Among the younger 16 to 17 year old age group, one in three said they had seen an ad or pop-up for an alcohol product on their social networking page, while one in five said they had received an online quiz about alcohol or drinking.

The Have We Bottled It? survey also found that two out of three Irish adults are in favour of introducing a minimum price on alcohol, a floor price below which alcohol cannot be sold, with almost half saying they would buy less alcohol if the price were to increase by just 10%.

But what exactly is alcohol marketing and how does it work?

Leading national and international experts answer some of your questions about alcohol marketing and explore what alcohol marketing actually is, how it works - and tell us what can be done to reduce its impact, particularly on young people.

Q: What is alcohol marketing and how does it work?
Professor Gerard Hastings, Director of the Institute for Social Marketing at Sterling University in Scotland, reveals the methods used by alcohol companies to promote their products. Click here to see interview

Q: Are my underage children being exposed to alcohol advertising when they are online?
Pat Kenny, Lecturer at Dublin Institute of Technology, warns about alcohol marketing in the digital age and warns of online alcohol adverts targeting young people. Click here to see interview

Q: How will drinking from a young age affect me?
Dr Bobby Smyth, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, on the realities of drinking in adolescence. Click here to see interview

Q: Alcohol marketing - isn’t that just the advertisements you see on TV?
James Doorley, Assistant Director of the National Youth Council of Ireland, talks about the Get ‘Em Young research mapping young people’s exposure to alcohol marketing in Ireland. Click here to see interview

Q: But what about alcohol marketing regulation?
Professor Joe Barry, Head of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Trinity College for Health Sciences, provides an overview of alcohol marketing regulation and looks at ways forward. Click here to see interview

Q: What is minimum pricing and how does it work?
Dr Evelyn Gillan, Chief Executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, on the campaign for minimum pricing on alcohol in Scotland. Click here to see interview

Q: Are there any local initiatives aimed at reducing alcohol consumption, especially among young people?
Hugh Greaves, Co-ordinator of the Ballymum Local Drugs Taskforce, on the local Ballymum Community Alcohol Strategy. Click here to see interview

Interested in finding out more? Click here

Keeping It In The Family – Children Living With Problem Drinking Parents

Some 61,000 children to 104,000 children in Ireland are living in families adversely affected by alcohol. Alcohol Action Ireland is campaigning to have the rights and needs of these children recognised and responded to.

For a child, parental drinking can shape their every moment from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed.

Will Mam drink today/will Dad drink today? What mood will they be in? Will it mean sweets or going to bed hungry? Or will they be so hung-over that you have to wash your own school uniform even though you are only 10-years-old?

A child might effectively have to become the parent in the family, making sure brothers and sisters are fed. In the most severe cases, a family situation can deteriorate to the extent where children are sexually, emotionally or physically abused or neglected - dirty nappies going unchanged, children going without regular meals.

Not every child in this situation will experience the same degree of harm - a stable adult making sure the comforting family routines of bedtimes and mealtimes are followed can make a huge difference to a child’s life.

Children, however, already facing challenges such as poverty, domestic abuse and mental illness, as well as, parental problem drinking can face an almost insurmountable range of challenges.