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There is little comfort in alcohol; foster healthy coping tools that will last long beyond COVID-19    Alcohol Action Ireland today (27 March) has published a set of advice guidelines to help people understand the risk of turning to alcohol in these difficult times. This advice, developed with Mental Health Ireland, comes at a time when the alcohol off-trade business is reporting exceptional sales as people look to stock-up with excessive amounts of alcohol at home. The current public health... Full Story

Our colleagues at Mental Health Ireland have shared five simple actions we can all take to protect our mental health and maintain positive wellbeing during uncertain and challenging times. The CEO of Mental Health Ireland, Martin Rogan, says, “By now, we are all learning to adjust to the new ‘normal’ of remote working, social distancing and evolving updates on Covid-19 becoming part of our everyday lives.” “This can understandably cause a lot of concern and stress, and can impact on... Full Story

Alcohol Action Ireland today (Wed, 18 March) note the data released by Revenue: provisional alcohol clearances and receipts 2019. This data indicates that Ireland’s alcohol consumption remains high at 10.78 litres per capita. Alcohol receipts for the year ended show a 0.05% decline, however when an estimated population data for 2019 is applied (CSO: population >15 years old – 3,912.6m) the figures for consumption, as a per capita, stand at 10.78 litres, indicative of a small but encouraging reduction –... Full Story

    As human beings, with our species still evolving, today we know more than ever before about what impacts our development and behaviours i.e. what we should be doing as parents, and the food and drink we need to consume in order to protect our bodies and our health. Our knowledge is growing yet we continue to make mistakes and ignore informative data and evidence-based research about the harms caused by alcohol. I want this gathering to focus on two matters when deliberating over the course of the next few... Full Story

New government must make implementation of life-saving legislation a priority, says Mental Health Ireland & Alcohol Action Ireland, as global conference convenes in Dublin   In Ireland, the most recent Global Burden of Disease data (2016) indicates that annually 2,790 deaths are alcohol related; that is nearly 8 deaths every single day. Ireland’s progressive public health law reform measures to tackle alcohol harm in this country must be implemented without delay by the new government, two leading NGOs have said.... Full Story

Five main parties renew their commitment to the full implementation of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act including Minimum Unit Pricing. Six parties outline commitment to other initiatives with public health alcohol policy. Alcohol Action today (Monday, 2nd Feb) published an overview of the central commitments within the manifestos of the political parties running candidates in the forthcoming election.        ... Full Story

Alcohol Action Ireland today (Thursday 23 Jan) launched its Election 2020 manifesto calling for a new government to advance the measures within the Public Health Alcohol Act and to prioritise a set of strategic actions to address the enormous social and economic cost of alcohol related harms to Irish society. Over the last decade, Ireland has made no progress in reducing our overall consumption, as we still drink 11 litres of pure alcohol per capita per year; over 60,000 children... Full Story

Agreement to restore Northern Ireland Executive provides new opportunity for the implementation of Minimum Unit Pricing for alcohol products. A new Strategic Plan on Alcohol features within ‘Priorities of the Restored Executive’ for Northern Ireland   Alcohol Action Ireland welcome the publication overnight of the two governments ‘New Decade, New Approach’ - a draft agreement which they state ‘represents a fair and balanced basis’ upon which to restore the institutions within Northern Ireland.  Crucially, Part One of the ‘Priorities of the... Full Story

As a new decade dawned in 2010, Ireland’s drinking population was working its way through 11 litres of pure alcohol per capita – this corresponds to 46 bottles of Gin or close on 500 pints for everyone in the audience. Back then, as a society, and with an agreed political consensus, we had begun to examine how we could establish meaningful alcohol controls to curb the demand and supply of alcohol and recalibrate our hazardous relationship with alcohol. Eight years... Full Story