High price of soft drinks criticised as TD calls for curb on alcohol adverts

FINE GAEL TD Catherine Byrne has criticised the cost of soft drinks at entertainment outlets throughout the State.

“I happened to be at a function in a hotel where I paid €12 for four bottles of Coca-Cola,” she said. “I think that is outrageous.” Ms Byrne added that her daughter had paid €3.50 for a bottle of water at a Dublin city centre disco. Something had to be done, she said, to prevent this happening.

She said that as a parent, she was concerned when her own children socialised at the weekend.

“The fear is always there that you get the dreaded phone call, which I did last year,” she added.

“My young daughter ended up with a bottle in her face, and I spent 11 hours with her in accident and emergency as she got five stitches on the bridge of her nose.”

Ms Byrne said alcohol advertising should be examined, particularly where it involved teenagers.

Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said the calorie content of alcohol should be displayed on bottles and cans. “People do not realise how many calories there are in alcohol,” he said, adding the health implications of abuse should be made clear. The average bottle of wine contained nine units of alcohol, he added.

Labour health spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan said while it was illegal to sell alcohol to minors, “we all know, as Deputy Byrne has said, that there is a huge abuse of alcohol among minors.”

Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said there was a European charter on alcohol, with a declaration relating to young people. If the recommendations were acted on, they would make a helpful contribution to combating alcohol abuse.

Minister of State for Health Áine Brady said the average alcohol consumption in Ireland had been consistently one of the highest in the EU.

“My department will continue to seek to reduce the overall level of alcohol consumption in the population in order to reduce the burden of alcohol-related harm on the health services and on society in general.”

Ms Brady said people needed to take responsibility, both collectively and individually, for alcohol abuse. “There is a social acceptance of alcohol in our society and we need to question the signal that it is sending, particularly to our young people,” she added.

Last year, Ms Brady added, the Government had agreed to include alcohol in a national substance misuse strategy, which would be co-ordinated jointly by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and her own department.

A steering group had been established and it was expected that it would submit its report to the Government by the end of the year.

Supply, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and research were being examined, she said.

Ms Byrne said that labelling and advertising were being examined by the department’s health promotion unit.