Alcohol News

Alcohol Action Ireland release its annual Alcohol Market Review and Price Survey 2019 Alcohol so cheap - Irish Men can drink weekly low-risk guideline limit for as little as €7.48; women €4.84. Highly sophisticated pricing model ensures alcohol affordability is universal throughout urban, regional or rural Ireland. Introduction of Minimum Unit pricing must now be prioritised Ireland’s Off-Licence holders share an estimated €3.8 billion bonanza market   Alcohol Action Ireland today (1st August) published its annual off-trade alcohol market review... Full Story

Alcohol Action Ireland note with interest the Department of Health’s invitation, as published today (National Newspapers, 25 July), to interested parties an opportunity to submit expert research on the effectiveness of health warnings and information on the labels of alcohol products and in advertisement for alcohol products. While it is disappointing that this step has only begun now, we are satisfied that the Minister for Health and his officials are focused on progressing the measures passed by the Oireachtas last... Full Story

Alcohol Action Ireland today (Monday 1 July) noted the development, as reported yesterday (Sunday, 30 June), that government now intends to press ahead with implementation of minimum unit pricing for all alcohol products sold within the state. Minimum unit pricing is a central pillar of the important initiatives set out in the Public Health Alcohol Act, which came into law in October 2018. The important measures within the Act seek to improve public health outcomes and curb persistent high levels... Full Story

Alcohol Action Ireland today (25th June) called on any Irish student planning a post-exam holiday to think carefully about their trip. Increasingly post-exam holidays abroad have become the pattern for many young students after their heavy schedule is concluded. Frequently many travel on packages specially prepared for students with Spain, especially the Balearic Islands’ destinations, Greece and Cyprus all featuring as choice destinations. Last year many young Irish holidaymakers very quickly fell victim of excessive alcohol consumption and tragically some... Full Story

Alcohol Action Ireland today, Wednesday 19 June, welcomed the release of the Scottish monitoring report on alcohol data. The report, from NHS Scotland, is the first to be published since the introduction of Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) for alcohol in Scotland in May 2018. In 2018, 9.9 litres per capita of pure alcohol were sold in Scotland – the lowest level seen since the monitoring process began. Since 2010, the volume of pure alcohol sold per adult through supermarkets and... Full Story

Alcohol Action Ireland today, Tuesday 11 June, welcomed the contribution from the BBC Panorama programme to the ongoing debate about public health alcohol policy actions.   The programme, broadcast on Monday, 10 June, and presented by broadcaster, Adrian Chiles, identified the lack of commitment from the UK government to establish statutory regulations on health information on alcohol products.   The programme also featured Professor Nick Sheron, Head of Population Hepatology Research Group within Medicine at the University of Southampton, who... Full Story

The public health community is greatly disappointed about the SpiritsEurope approach[1] to label their products. In our view, the European spirits industry refrains from informing consumers at the point of sale in an easy and accessible manner. Instead of following the EU Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, the spirits industry is granted a non-binding self-regulatory approach providing information about energy on label and information on ingredients and nutritional value online on the responsibledrinking.eu website or... Full Story

Alcohol Action Ireland today (Thurs 16 May) note the release of the survey data from the Western Regional Drug and Alcohol Task Force of 15-16 year olds in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. The extensive lifestyle survey, which was conducted by the Icelandic group Planet Youth, reveals worrying aspects of teenage alcohol use including: 77% of respondents have drunk alcohol in their lifetime. 46% report being drunk in their lifetime. 30% had tried alcohol by 13 26% report being drunk in... Full Story

Alcohol Action Ireland is calling on all candidates standing in the 2019 European Parliament Elections to make a commitment supporting the World Health Organization (WHO) view that the ‘alcohol industry should have no role in the formulation of alcohol policies, which must be protected from distortion by commercial or vested interests’.1 This view was reiterated most recently by the WHO in April 2019 stating that ‘engagement may be used by the alcohol industry primarily to serve their interests with limited... Full Story

Alcohol Action Ireland today (Tues, 12 March) note the data released by Revenue: provisional alcohol clearances and receipts 2018. This data disappointingly indicates that alcohol consumption remains stubbornly high at 11 litres per capita. Alcohol receipts for the year ended show a 1.78% rise, however when an estimated population data for 2018 is applied (CSO: population >15 years old - 3,848.4m) the figures for consumption as a per capita, stand at 11 litres, indicative of essentially a status quo, year... Full Story