Alcohol Action Ireland press release, Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), the national independent advocate to reduce alcohol harm, welcomes the recent move to amend Section 23 of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 (PHAA) by Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.
Section 23 of the PHAA gives the Minister the power to ban specific types of alcohol promotions and marketing that could encourage people to buy or consume more alcohol than they otherwise would.
AAI CEO Dr Sheila Gilheany said: “This amendment is a welcome boost for public health by ensuring that big retailers cannot circumvent the law any more to sell cut-price alcohol.
“Section 23 bans specific types of alcohol promotions including using or earning bonus points when buying alcohol. When first introduced in January 2023 supermarkets got round this by giving discounts based on just having a loyalty card or being part of a loyalty scheme.
“The move also highlights that alcohol is no ordinary product and should not be treated as a regular grocery item given the significant burden arising from it, with thousands of hospital admissions every year, four people dying every day and a massive toll on families, communities and the state.
“We appreciate that the Minister of Health has acted to address the issue of supermarket club schemes. This will have some impact but even more could be achieved.
“Despite being signed into law back in 2018, not all sections of the PHAA are implemented even though they were designed to work in tandem. For example, the delay in implementing alcohol health information labelling to September 2028 following a global campaign by the alcohol industry is more than disappointing and shows the lengths that this industry will go to subvert this important legislation.
“Meanwhile other sections are being undermined by the loophole of marketing 0.0 products that use the same branding as their full-strength equivalents in places off-limits to alcohol marketing.”
The two further sections of the Act that remain to be commenced are in relation to advertising: Section 13 which places restrictions on the content of alcohol advertisements and Section 18 which relates to advertisements in publications.
Dr Gilheany continued: “Section 13, in particular, is ferociously resisted by industry as it restricts the content of alcohol advertisements to facts, stripping out the industry myths which are used to recklessly promote alcohol consumption. In addition, ads for alcohol products will be required to include health information such as cancer warnings and details of the HSE alcohol information website, with the aim of providing unbiased material about alcohol risks and to break the positive associations between alcohol and lifestyle.
“There is strong public support for controls on alcohol marketing and a need for more information on alcohol with polling indicating two in three people support requiring health information labels on alcohol products, including warnings about risks such as cancer. If government is serious about tackling alcohol harm, which kills more than 1,500 people every year and costs the state €14 billion annually, then it needs to have a coherent approach to alcohol across all departments.
“Unfortunately, at the moment, some elements of government are acting at the behest of the alcohol industry seeking delays in the implementation of the PHAA. A commonsense approach would ensure all aspects of alcohol policy are aligned to the goals of the Department of Health to reduce alcohol consumption. This would include action in areas such as increases in alcohol excise duties, strict controls on online marketing of alcohol as well as the full implementation of the PHAA.”
ENDS
