Alcohol Action Ireland press release, Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), the national independent advocate to reduce alcohol harm, welcomes today’s publication of two reports from the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) to support an update to Ireland’s low-risk alcohol guidelines, which were last revised in 2015.
Combining information on alcohol consumption, deaths, hospital admissions, and how alcohol affects the risk of particular health conditions, the first report shows that alcohol-related risk generally increased as people drank more, while the lifetime risk of death before age 75, death at any age, years of life lost, and the rate of hospital admissions all increased when people drank more alcohol per day. The second report, looking at the association between alcohol consumption and mental health, states that in Ireland alcohol is often linked with worse mental health and is often involved in self-harm and suicide, so drinking alcohol and mental health are relevant public health concerns.
AAI CEO Dr Sheila Gilheany said: “The HSE’s current low-risk weekly guidelines for alcohol consumption are 17 standard drinks, spread out over the course of a week with at least two to three alcohol-free days for men, and 11 standard drinks, spread out over the course of a week with at least two to three alcohol-free days for women. A standard drink is around half a pint of normal-strength beer, stout or cider, or in a small glass of wine of around 100ml.
“In the 11 years since the last revision, new evidence and improved modelling has allowed for more accurate estimation of the health risks associated with different levels of alcohol consumption. This report shows that if 100 people were to drink at a level under 2 standard drinks a day, one extra person would be expected to die before age 75 because of alcohol.
“The report states that a large share of deaths caused by alcohol happened among people drinking at lower individual levels, because this is a much larger group. This means that it is not only people who drink heavily or who are dependent on alcohol that are harmed by alcohol.
“The report also points to the patterns of alcohol consumption and notes the high levels of binge drinking in Ireland as a particularly risky element in a country where binge drinking is very common, especially among young people. It also notes that this is likely to be an underestimate of harms as it did not include all alcohol related conditions, harms to others or wider harms to families, communities and society.
“AAI has been advocating for a revision of Ireland’s low-risk guidelines to reflect current understanding of the health risks associated with alcohol. These reports underline the need for the Department of Health to update the guidelines without delay.”
Of note in the report was the disproportionate mortality rate from alcohol between men and women. Between 2022 and 2024, alcohol was estimated to account for an average of 1,420 deaths every year in Ireland. This represented 4% of all deaths, including 6% of deaths in males and 1.9% of deaths in females.
Dr Gilheany continued: “This week being Men’s Health Week, it is a timely reminder that men are particularly impacted by alcohol, with the report stating that the leading causes of alcohol-related deaths among men to be injuries, heart disease, digestive diseases including liver disease, and cancer.
“Ireland’s world leading labelling regulations ensuring all alcohol products have to carry labels giving health information, including facts on cancer and liver disease, were due to come into force last month but the government capitulated to the intensive lobbying of the alcohol industry and labelling has now been delayed until September 2028, and remains under threat. It is crucial that labelling is introduced without further delay.
“Labelling is one part of Ireland’s Public Health (Alcohol) Act (PHAA), which was signed into law back in 2018 yet not all sections are in force, meaning the legislation cannot achieve its stated aims of reducing population-level alcohol consumption and limiting children’s exposure to alcohol marketing. If government wants to achieve a level of alcohol reduction that will improve public health and reduce injuries and deaths then all sections of the PHAA must be made operational in tandem, and any loopholes closed as a matter of urgency.”
ENDS
