Alcohol Action Ireland press release, 23 July 2025
Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), the national independent advocate to reduce alcohol harm, is disappointed with the news that the government has taken a decision to delay the introduction of alcohol health information labelling, which had been scheduled for May next year, until 2028.
Alcohol labelling is a key aspect of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act (2018) (PHAA), which aims to reduce population-level alcohol consumption and to minimise the amount of alcohol marketing children and young people are exposed to. The delay, which comes against the backdrop of intense opposition to labelling from the alcohol industry, will not be without consequences in a country where liver disease rates have steadily increased over the past 20 years, around 1,000 alcohol-related cancers are diagnosed every year and Ireland has the third highest level of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) in the world affecting up to 7.4% of the population. Alcohol labels tell people the facts, that alcohol causes liver disease and cancer. They also have a pregnancy warning graphic, while giving basic nutritional information and the details of the HSE website www.askaboutalcohol.ie.
AAI CEO Dr Sheila Gilheany said: “To say that this delay is a blow for public health in Ireland is an understatement. It is a failure of leadership and of democracy. It’s not just that Irish people are being denied their right to information regarding some of the facts about alcohol so that they can make informed decisions. It’s not just that the government is allowing its own groundbreaking legislation to be undermined by the very industry it is designed to regulate. This delay will have real-life consequences that will be felt by ordinary Irish people every day.
“In the period to 2028 more than 3,000 people in Ireland will be diagnosed with cancer caused by alcohol. This includes some of the most common cancers in Ireland such as breast and bowel cancer with one in every eight breast cancers arising from alcohol. There will be upwards of 15,000 babies born with FASD, which is a completely preventable neuro-developmental condition that has lifelong implications and is estimated to cost the Irish exchequer €2.4 billion a year in terms of service need. Labels are crucial to efforts to reduce incidences of cancer, liver disease and FASD in Ireland and indeed to change the conversation about this product which is heavily marketed as risk-free and essential to everyday living.”
The PHAA incorporates the World Health Organization’s ‘Best Buys’ of controls on alcohol pricing, availability and marketing, in addition to a range of other measures (such as labelling), all of which are designed to work in tandem to reduce overall alcohol consumption and curb alcohol harm in Ireland. However, seven years after being signed into law, not all measures of the PHAA are operational. Furthermore, important regulations are being undermined by the loophole of advertising of zero-alcohol products.
Dr Gilheany continued: “The implementation of the PHAA has been slow and has lacked strategic planning, which has played right into the alcohol industry’s hands. Important sections of the legislation regarding advertising have yet to be commenced and many of the rules that are in force are being circumvented by the loophole of marketing zero-alcohol products that use the same branding as the master brand. The lack of high-level leadership, coupled with the ease of access the alcohol industry has to government figures, has created a space where industry misinformation has been allowed to flourish. It has also been clear that sections of government sought to relitigate the entire rationale for labelling despite these regulations having been subject to detailed democratic process at national and international level over the past decade. The question needs to be asked, is there anyone in government who is standing up for public health?
“The two further sections of the PHAA in relation to advertising that remain to be commenced are Section 13 which places restrictions on the content of alcohol ads and Section 18 which relates to ads in publications. Section 13, in particular, is ferociously resisted by industry as it restricts the content of alcohol ads to facts, stripping out the industry myths which are used to recklessly promote alcohol consumption. This section is still awaiting publication of secondary regulations which will then have to be assessed by the European Commission and once assessed it will be three further years before they become operational, while Section 18 cannot be commenced until Section 13 is operational.
“At the same time, Minimum Unit Pricing, which sets the lowest price an alcoholic drink can be legally sold at, has not been increased. Its current value was first proposed in 2013 and has not changed since its implementation in 2022 so its public health benefit is being eroded by inflation.
“There are reports of an enhanced public health information campaign. While this is certainly needed, in the absence of labelling and advertising controls it is simply not sufficient and a poor substitute for the comprehensive approach that is needed to address alcohol harm. To put this in context, the alcohol industry spends at least €115 million annually in Ireland on alcohol ads, not counting sports sponsorship deals such as the Guinness Six Nations. These ads present alcohol as an essential, risk-free part of life in Ireland. Is the government intending to spend at least €115 million in health messaging to counter this saturation alcohol marketing? It is literally nonsensical for the government to have to spend scarce health resources in this way as opposed to insisting that the alcohol industry comply with Irish law to provide the health information, not least because the labels were already starting to appear on products.
“Unfortunately, none of this is surprising given that there is no dedicated national strategy to tackle alcohol harms. AAI has been advocating for the establishment of an Office for Alcohol Harm Reduction, to take the lead in coordinating all actions around alcohol, which would have the effect of keeping the whole-of-government focus on this critical issue that costs Ireland €12 billion every year in health, justice and lost productivity, and limit the reach of the alcohol industry in delaying and obstructing public health alcohol policies. The independent report published this week on the evaluation of Ireland’s National Drugs Strategy noted significant concerns from stakeholders about the lack of strategic direction in relation to Ireland’s most widely used and harmful drug, alcohol. This latest debacle, backtracking on labelling, only underlines the urgent need for such an office.
“It is noteworthy that Minister Carroll MacNeill recently made clear that she would not meet with representatives of the tobacco industry. This is in keeping with Ireland’s obligations under the international Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It is a recognition that a health harming industry should not be involved in setting government policy. However, when it comes to another health-harming product, alcohol, there are no such limitations despite costs from alcohol likely twice those of tobacco. Since January there have been at least 6 meetings/contacts by alcohol industry lobbyists with senior government officials from a range of departments who then brought pressure to bear on settled government policy. Ireland’s well deserved international public health reputation has undoubtedly been tarnished by these actions where clearly the profits of an already immensely wealthy industry were deemed more important than the lives of babies, women and men right across Ireland.
“If this government really wants to achieve a level of alcohol reduction that will improve public health, reduce injuries and deaths, and save the health system and taxpayer money, then all sections of the PHAA must be made operational in tandem, and any loopholes closed as a matter of urgency.”
ENDS
