Fact-checked or fiction? Where is the scrutiny of alcohol industry's tall tales?

Some people will say anything

In most cases, professionally and personally, the utterances of organisations and individuals are thoroughly investigated for veracity and accuracy – in essence, you are held to account for what you say. We regularly see this in politics with fact checking and probing by the media and political opponents, in sport with detailed analysis of performances and results, and in business with financial analysis of accounts, amongst others. However, when it comes to the alcohol industry, it appears they can say whatever they want without their statements ever being investigated for fact or accuracy.

While this has long been the case, in recent years it appears that the alcohol industry has developed an even greater propensity for tall tales – unfortunately, these claims are increasingly being swallowed by media and politicians. From claiming youth drinking is decreasing, to alcohol health information labelling affecting exports, to questioning the proven link between alcohol and cancer, and everything in between, the industry will say anything to obfuscate the harm their product causes – irrespective of the truth.

Big Alcohol having a disregard for truth is unsurprising, however, what is frustrating is failure of the media and politicians to interrogate industry claims, and worse again is their role in amplifying these false claims.

In this blog AAI investigate some the alcohol industry’s most recent doublespeak.

Claims that moderation is the new norm

According to Heineken Ireland “moderation now the norm”.[1] In their own report, ‘Always a choice: How Socialising is Changing in Ireland’, Heineken went to great lengths to claim that “moderation in alcohol consumption is becoming more popular among Irish adults” and “that more people are choosing to drink less and want to continue doing so in various social situations”.[2]

There is no doubt that alcohol consumption has decreased in Ireland, with analysis of Revenue Commissioner data showing that in 2024 consumption stood at 9.49 litres of alcohol per adult (15+). This, however, has little do with Heineken given that the directors of the company have a fiduciary responsibility to maximise long-term value for shareholders – i.e. increase profits by selling more product. Indeed, the Heineken ‘Corporate Governance Statement’ for 2025 states unequivocally that the Executive Board “…is responsible for setting and achieving the operational and financial objectives of the Company…”.[3]

What seems more likely is that at least part of the decrease relates to the role of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act – a piece of legislation which was opposed by the alcohol industry. Moreover, despite what Heineken Ireland says, moderation is not the new norm. Independent, academic research from the Health Research Board revealed that more than half (52.3%) of all drinkers are classified as hazardous drinkers, while the 2024 Healthy Ireland Survey found that 28% of people binge drink on a typical drinking occasion and that binge drinking is on the rise.[4] This information from the HRB and the Department of Health very much disprove the idea that moderation is now the norm in Ireland, in fact, it posits that hazardous drinking is the norm.

Claims that youth drinking has decreased

Youth drinking in Ireland has attracted considerable attention over many decades. Advances such as an increase in the average age at which young people start drinking and improvements in Ireland’s position compared with EU averages were much needed, and the public health measures which drove these successes are worthy of celebration.

In recent years this has led to consistent claims in the media that young people are drinking less. It is not uncommon to see articles with quotes like “People are more health conscious. Younger people have moved away from drinking due to this, they are more inclined to go to coffee bars and places like that”[5] or “Alcohol consumption in Ireland has fallen… driven by more health-conscious young people with less disposable income”.[6] The alcohol industry has also jumped on this, claiming that “younger people… have shown themselves to have a completely different relationship with alcohol than older generations”.[7]

However, while drinking among young people declined from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, since 2015, that downward trend has reversed with consumption by 15–24-year-olds increasing from 66% in 2018 to 75% in 2024.

Alcohol consumption amongst 15–24-year-olds (2015-2024) as recorded by Healthy Ireland Survey’s. NB. In 2019 Healthy Ireland data on alcohol was collected through the National Drug and Alcohol Survey, while in 2020 the Healthy Ireland Survey was cancelled due to Covid19. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

What is also clear is that when drinking is initiated it is accompanied by high levels of particularly risky and hazardous consumption – 64% regularly binge drink and one in three young drinkers has an Alcohol Use Disorder. Moreover, young people do not appear to have a different relationship with alcohol than older generations as once they begin drinking, they consume alcohol above the national average (75% vs 73%).[17]

Improvements in youth drinking in the early years of this century were followed by a decade self-satisfaction amongst policy makers which allowed industry to push a narrative that youth drinking is no longer an issue in Ireland. As a result, assumptions took precedence over the fact that youth drinking has been steadily increasing for a decade in conjunction with the normalisation of hazardous drinking patterns.

Claims that alcohol health information labelling affects exports and the European single market

Recently, we saw industry use EU-US trade difficulties to lobby for alcohol health information labelling to be postponed. As we will see later, industry has always been opposed to labelling, but in mid-2025 they manipulated the confusion which existed around EU-US trade to claim that alcohol health information labelling would affect export products. Unfortunately, government Ministers and the media fell for these claims, repeating and reporting them verbatim.[18] [19]

However, the claim was incorrect as labelling has absolutely nothing to do with exports; indeed, the regulations underpinning labelling place no burden whatsoever on export businesses as the measures only apply to goods sold in Ireland.[20] However, once Alcohol Action Ireland, and a host of other public health advocates and organisations, exposed this untruth, industry claimed labelling, while not affecting exports, would now impact the single market.[21] This claim also went unscrutinised by politicians and the media.[22]

As with their claim that labelling would affect exports, the industry’s instance that labelling would undermine the single market was also untrue. Ireland’s labelling regulations were subject to the rigour of the European Commission’s Technical Regulations Information System (TRIS) process, and the Commission decided that labelling did not constitute a barrier to trade or the single market.^[23] The aim of the TRIS process is to prevent new technical barriers to trade being created between Member States. The Commission adjudicated that labelling does not constitute a barrier to the single marker or trade and that Ireland’s regulations are proportionate to the scale of the alcohol issues in this country.

Claims that labelling would be prohibitively expensive

No sooner had industry claims that alcohol health information labelling would affect exports and undermine the single market been exposed by AAI and others, the alcohol industry engaged in further ‘policy dystopia’ – a classical model which focuses on creating alarming economic stories that spread in newspapers, through constituents in TDs’ local areas, commissioning research that agrees with its view, and meeting with ministers and policy makers. To this end they pushed the claim that labelling would be prohibitively expensive leading to packaging and labelling costs increasing by “over one-third”.[24] Indeed, this claim was even brought as far as the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin.[25]

However, as soon as government capitulated and deferred labelling, the alcohol industry admitted that the public health measure was never actually going to be prohibitively expensive. Speaking to The Spirits Business, an international trade magazine and website dedicated to the spirits industry, Elliot Wilson, co-founder and strategy director at drinks marketing agency The Cabinet, admitted that the immediate cost impact on the industry would be limited. He revealed “The actual physical cost isn’t going to be prohibitive… People have all sorts of labelling, and it’s a straightforward adaption to the label…”.[26] Indeed, even Ibec’s own submission to the European Commission TRIS process gave a cost for labelling of as low as €0.03 per unit.

Ironically, the idea that costs posed a significant issue for the industry was also disproven by the fact that, throughout the summer of 2025, dozens of alcohol products appeared carrying healthy labels in the fridges and on the shelves of shops around the country – a year before the labelling law was due to commence. A single analysis by AAI of the off-licence in one supermarket found over 60 wines, beers, and ciders from at least 10 countries labelled.

Claims that it’s too complicated to say alcohol causes cancer

As the PHAA moved through the Oireachtas the alcohol industry positioned themselves against several aspects of the legislation which continued into the EU notification processes. To bolster their arguments, they made demonstrably false claims regarding the health benefits of alcohol, while downplaying the risks.[27] Indeed, the myth that wine, in moderation, is good for the heart has often made appearances in the Irish media landscape, so too have industry claims that the linking alcohol and cancer is disproportionate, inaccurate, and complex.[28]

The use of such tactics has been especially evident in the industry’s opposition to alcohol health information labelling. A particularly egregious example of this came to light during Ireland’s notification on alcohol labelling regulations to the EU Commission through the Technical Regulations Information System (TRIS) which culminated in 2022. In their submissions to the process many of the industry’s well-coordinated submissions used the ‘complexity’ argument, i.e., that the association between alcohol and cancer risk is apparently complex and cannot be adequately explained in a single warning label and that this is a complicated scientific and policy issue that people couldn’t possibly get to grips with by giving them public health information.[29] While in the media, the industry continuously distorted, downplayed, and otherwise obfuscated the evidence linking alcohol and cancer.[30] Indeed, in many instances, industry arguments claimed the cancer warning was inaccurate, unproven, and based on false or unsound evidence.[31]

Throughout the summer of 2025 similar claims began to resurface as industry campaigned against alcohol health information labelling. In one interview it was claimed that alcohol offered a protective effect against some cancers.[32] However, the evidence linking drinking and cancer is well established. In 1988, the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that alcohol is carcinogenic to humans.[33] Research in the decades since has only strengthened the conclusion, including for breast, liver, colorectal and oesophageal cancers. While in 2023, the WHO and the IARC declared in a joint statement: “No safe amount of alcohol consumption for cancers can be established.”.[34] Drinking any beverage containing alcohol regardless of its type, price or quality increases your risk of developing cancer.

Claims that pubs are good for mental health

In recent years there have been attempts to position pubs, particularly rural pubs, as the solution to isolation and the mental health difficulties associated with it.[35] There is no doubt that social connectivity is good for people’s mental health, but social connectivity can be achieved in a variety of ways and does not have to be achieved in pubs.

The reality is that alcohol is no ordinary commodity; it is a depressant drug with significant health implications for those who use it, and it is a significant risk factor for suicide, as recognised by the World Health Organisation.[36] A psychotropic depressant of the central nervous system, alcohol promotes simultaneous changes in several neuronal pathways, exerting a profound neurological impact that leads to various behavioural and biological alterations.[37]

Alcohol has long been linked with poor mental health, including both self-harm and suicide.[38] Research on alcohol has shown how its consumption can play a variety of negative roles in relation to mental health difficulties. Not least, alcohol can be a contributory factor to mental health distress, it can be an exacerbator of existing mental health difficulties, while mental health difficulties can be a maintaining factor for alcohol consumption.

Furthermore, alcohol has a ripple effect which can also affect the mental health of those in the ecosystem of the consumer, especially children.[39] Moreover, alcohol has been one factor that has been shown time and time again to increase the risk of suicidal behaviours[40] with domestic research finding alcohol to be a factor in nearly half of all suicide cases.[41]

Claims that advertising doesn’t increase alcohol consumption

Representatives of the alcohol industry have long argued that advertising does not increase consumption, rather it secures market share by encouraging drinkers to switch brands.[42] This summer the industry even quoted a so called ‘Dark money’ think tank with alleged links to the gas, gambling, oil, and tobacco industries to reinforce their claims that advertising does not impact consumption.[43] [44] The Spirts Business reported that “…the amount of money spent on alcohol advertising has no effect on alcohol consumption overall.”.[45]

However, such claims could not be further from the truth. Alcohol is one of the most heavily marketed products with the annual spend on alcohol marketing in Ireland conservatively estimated at €115m. The whole purpose of marketing is to create a need or desire for a product, and there is strong evidence that controls on marketing can help reduce consumption. For example, Norway’s 1975 ban on alcohol advertising had a significant, immediate, and sustained 7.4% reduction in sales.[46]

Alcohol is not a staple, it is not a necessary purchase, therefore a market must be created for it – and new drinkers must be recruited to create and expand that market.[47] Indeed, we have known for some time alcohol advertising seeks to recruit new drinkers and increase sales among existing consumers of alcohol, including those with alcohol use disorder and dependency and young people.[48] It was for this reason that the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 contained measures aimed at reducing the direct, or indirect, promotion of alcohol products, especially towards children and young people.

Claims to support public health aims to reduce alcohol consumption

Whenever the issue of alcohol consumption is raised by politicians, health professionals, or public health advocacy bodies, the alcohol industry will claim that they are aligned with the public health aims set out by government to reduce alcohol consumption. However, their actions always belie the truth.

From its origins in 2009 to its passage to law in 2018 the Public Health (Alcohol) Act faced considerable industry opposition. Indeed, in their research paper, ‘Understanding the Political Organization and Tactics of the Alcohol Industry in Ireland 2009-2018’, Lesch and McCambridge identified three interrelated tactics used by alcohol industry actors to oppose, delay, and, failing that, shape the PHAA.[49] These tactics were obstruction through participation, coalition-building and mobilizing proxies, and making use of extensive political resources in lobbying. Indeed, in 2025, all three tactics were deployed by industry in their attempts to torpedo Ireland’s groundbreaking alcohol health information labelling.

While this was happening spokespeople would claim the industry supported public health aims to reduce alcohol consumption. Such statements, however, are oxymoronic given public health strategies are aimed at reducing the total consumption of alcohol, but the aim of industry is to promote and increase overall alcohol consumption. In any event, it is highly suspect if alcohol companies could support public health aims in practice given it would contravene their legal, fiduciary responsibility to maximise profits for shareholders. For instance, Diageo’s 2024 Annual Report states that “Diageo’s Directors have a fiduciary responsibility to maximise long-term value for shareholders”[50] – and the way this is done is through selling more product for consumption, not less.

Conclusion

Big Alcohol having a disregard for truth is unsurprising – as the old saying goes “what do you expect from a pig but a grunt”. However, what is frustrating is failure of the media and politicians to interrogate industry claims, and worse again is their role in amplifying these false claims. In the media’s case this is done though copy and paste journalism or churnalism[51] – where articles are published with little or no original research or fact-checking, instead relying on pre-packaged material like press releases, wire copy, and public relations information subsidies,[52] and in the case of politics through government Ministers and elected representatives regurgitating industry claims and allowing these to influence policy direction and decisions.

It is up to politicians to hold industry to account, to drive policy to reduce consumption, and to make Big Alcohol pay for the harm its product causes. However, this cannot be achieved if they are duped by industry doublespeak. It is high time politicians and the media woke up to the tactics of the alcohol industry.

[1] https://www.drinksindustryireland.ie/research-shows-moderation-now-the-norm/

[2] https://www.heinekenireland.ie/sites/heineken-ireland/files/2025-09/hei-always-a-choice-report-final.pdf

[3] https://www.theheinekencompany.com/sites/heineken-corp/files/2025-04/heineken-nv-corporate-governance-statement-2025.pdf

[4] https://www.rte.ie/news/health/2024/1203/1484532-healthy-ireland/

[5] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg2ynpxx22o

[6] https://www.irishtimes.com/health/2024/08/24/falling-out-of-love-with-booze-why-ireland-is-drinking-less/

[7] https://www.ibec.ie/drinksireland/news-insights-and-events/news/2024/03/26/cormac-healy-our-drinking-habits-in-ireland-have-changed

[8] https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/healthy-ireland-survey-summary-report-2015.pdf

[9] https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/healthy-ireland-survey-summary-report-2016-re-issue.pdf

[10] https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/healthy-ireland-survey-summary-report-2017.pdf

[11] https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/healthy-ireland-survey-summary-report-2018-d08308c6-c790-458f-afc2-f3f8c288e64b.pdf

[12] https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/31349/1/healthy.pdf