Alcohol Action Ireland press release, Friday, 12 December 2025
Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), the national independent advocate to reduce alcohol harm, notes with concern the recent comments attributed to Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon by his Italian counterpart, Francesco Lollobrigida, that the Irish government has decided to abandon its plan to introduce health labelling on alcohol products and that Ireland will instead allow Europe take control of this important national health policy.
The comments, made on November 17 in the context of a meeting of EU Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers, Agrifish Council raise many significant questions regarding government intentions around the introduction of its world-leading labelling regulations, which were due to come into force in May 2026 but were recently delayed until September 2028 – a date which was reiterated only this week by Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill as being the new introduction date. This is not least because currently there is no harmonising EU legislation on the use of health warnings on alcohol beverage, and previous attempts to view alcohol through a public health lens at EU level, such as the EU’s Beating Cancer Plan, were systematically weakened by the alcohol industry’s lobbying efforts.
AAI CEO Dr Sheila Gilheany said: “The comments attributed to Minister Heydon, if accurate, raise serious concerns about what the public is being told by government about the introduction of labelling versus what’s being decided behind closed doors at Cabinet. Has Minister Heydon done a solo run on an Irish health matter or have the Italians got the wrong end of the stick? It’s possible but unlikely.
“We need to know has a decision already been taken on this matter and, if so, when was it taken and by whom? Is there a change of official government policy that we’re not being told about? If there is a change of policy, which is a health matter, then why is the Agriculture Minister communicating it and not the Health Minister? And why are we only hearing about it from the Italian Agriculture Minister? Are the Italians now setting Irish health policy? We must remember that health is a national competency not an EU one, so this smacks of overreach into Ireland’s national affairs.”
Labelling is a key aspect of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act (2018) (PHAA), which aims to reduce population-level alcohol consumption and to minimise the amount of alcohol marketing children and young people are exposed to. The delay until 2028, which came against the backdrop of intense opposition to labelling from the alcohol industry, is not without consequences in a country where liver disease rates have steadily increased over the past 20 years, around 1,000 alcohol-related cancers are diagnosed every year, and Ireland has the third highest level of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) in the world affecting up to 7.4% of the population. Alcohol labels tell people the facts, that alcohol causes liver disease and cancer. They also have a pregnancy warning graphic, while giving basic nutritional information and the details of the HSE website www.askaboutalcohol.ie.
Dr Gilheany continued: “Any attempt by government to look at labelling within a European framework rather than pursuing a national approach must be fiercely resisted as there is no harmonising EU legislation on the use of health warnings on alcohol products. The current EU framework legislation on labelling provides an exemption to alcoholic drinks from having to include ingredients and nutritional information on the packaging, while the original framework food labelling directive initially provided no requirements relating to a need to indicate alcoholic strength, nor to list ingredients used in production. What is abundantly clear is that a decision taken by the Oireachtas in 2018 for the good of the health of Ireland is being systematically attacked by the global alcohol industry.
“Questions must also be asked as to why government seems determined to increase uncertainty for businesses, which surely is the exact opposite to what they should be doing. Labels are already appearing on a huge range of alcohol products in shops, many of them manufactured in Ireland, clearly showing producers can adapt to such a modest measure.
“People have a right to know the risks from alcohol to make informed decisions about their alcohol consumption. If this was any other industry, whose product caused so much harm, that didn’t have such huge political clout, there is no doubt that people would be warned of the health risks.
“The decision to delay labelling until 2028 was wrong and should never have been taken. To completely derail labelling – and be in no doubt that is what would happen if it is done via the EU – would be another example of this government putting private wealth before the health and wellbeing of Irish citizens.”
ENDS
