Almomst 80 health, social and community organisations, academics and advocates, have come together to voice strong opposition to proposed measures in the Sale of Alcohol bill that will dramatically increase the number of venues serving alcohol, as well as significantly extending the opening hours of pubs, bars and nightclubs.

The open letter to the three government party leaders – An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, and Minister for the Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport, Eamon Ryan – is an urgent call for this government to fully assess the implications of increased alcohol availability.

If you would like to add your voice to the chorus of those calling for a Health Impact Assessment on the Sale Of Alcohol bill, the most effective way is by emailing your local TDs, and we encourage you to do so!

Each TD and Senator has an Oireachtas email address as follows: firstname.surname@oireachtas.ie

Example: Leo Varadkar’s email address is leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie

Find Out Who Your Local TDs are here

Below is a draft email you can copy and paste, or write your own!

The proposals in the Sale of Alcohol bill will have impacts across multiple government departments with long lasting consequences. Government and politicians must operate in evidence-based policy making and consider these issues with full facts, not just the views of vested interests. At the very least, fully costed data is required for planning across services.

A Health Impact Assessment is a practical approach used to judge the potential health effects of a proposed policy, programme or project on a population, particularly on vulnerable or disadvantaged groups. This bill also presents an opportunity to make statutory provision for the systematic collation of relevant data around alcohol and its harms. Once we measure it, we can manage and ameliorate.

Alcohol is an addictive, psychoactive, toxic, carcinogen which already causes four deaths every day, necessitates the use of 1,500 hospital beds daily, as well as bringing devastation to families, disruption to workplaces and placing an enormous burden on our public services of at least €3.7 billion annually.

I am urgently calling on this government to do the right thing and carry out a Health Impact Assessment of this legislation without further delay.

Yours,