Alcohol Action Ireland press release, Tuesday, 10 November 2026
Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), the national independent advocate to reduce alcohol harm, notes the recently published Indecon / Drinks Ireland-IBEC report, which has received widespread media coverage.
AAI CEO Dr Sheila Gilheany said: “While this industry-funded report boasts that the alcohol drinks sector contributes €1.2 billion in excise duties and €1.4 billion in VAT to the Irish economy, it conveniently fails to account for any of the costs of alcohol to the state, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates at up to 2.5% of GDP – that’s €15 billion for Ireland in terms of health and social care, loss of workplace productivity and justice costs.
“There are also many other costs not included in this estimate such as harms to others and costs associated with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition with multiple impacts on health and education. Ireland has the third highest level of FASD in the world, possibly affecting up to 7.4% of the population.
“However, from a public health perspective the most concerning part of this report is buried deep, with it repeating industry’s arguments against Ireland’s world-leading alcohol health information labelling legislation, while calling for the issue to be agreed at EU level.
“Mandatory labelling of alcohol products in Ireland was set to come into force on 22 May this year but was postponed until September 2028 after ferocious lobbying by the alcohol industry, who view the delay as ‘a reprieve, but the conversation on alcohol labelling is far from over’. Labels would have told people the facts: that alcohol causes liver disease and fatal cancers. The report’s call to move labelling into Europe is the opening salvo in industry’s latest battle to completely derail this crucial public health initiative.
“Let there be no doubt – Europe is labelling’s no-man’s land and moving the issue there would be its death knell. Because of long-standing industry influence there is no harmonising EU legislation on the use of health warnings on alcohol products and any move would end all hopes of ever seeing health warnings – particularly cancer warnings – on alcohol products in Ireland.
“The alcohol industry operates a highly organized lobbying network within the EU, leveraging its economic and cultural clout and its power has been felt before – particularly the EU’s Beating Cancer Plan, launched in 2021, which was a rare opportunity to align EU alcohol policy with public health priorities. Instead, it became a case study in how powerful lobbying networks can dilute transformative initiatives.
“It also comes after comments attributed to Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon by his Italian counterpart, Francesco Lollobrigida, that Ireland has already decided to move labelling into Europe, which have raised serious concerns.
“What is abundantly apparent is that Irish law – the Public Health (Alcohol) Act, which mandates the introduction of labels – is being systematically attacked by the alcohol industry lobbying machine.”
Last year, health warning labels started appearing on many alcohol products in shops as producers looked to start complying before the law took effect. A recently published study that aimed to assess the early exposure and perceptions of the new labels, as well as the associations between the exposure and cancer knowledge/readiness for behaviour change, showed that two in five people who saw the labels reported that it made them think about alcohol’s impact on health, while one in four people reported deciding to buy less or no alcohol in that shopping trip.
Dr Gilheany continued: “This is the alcohol industry’s worst nightmare, with leading producers such as Heineken stating that health information labelling is a significant risk to their profits. We know that labelling works and we also know that the alcohol industry views the delay merely as a reprieve, with Diageo actually increasing its lobbying efforts on alcohol labelling.
“There is no doubt that industry will use this report at every opportunity – and they get many – to influence government on labelling.
“People have a right to know the risks from alcohol to make informed decisions about their alcohol consumption. The decision to delay labelling until 2028 was wrong and should never have been taken. But Ireland still has an opportunity for global leadership by resisting industry pressure to move labelling into Europe and ensuring it goes ahead without further delay in September 2028.”
ENDS
