For many, Christmas spirit comes in a glass. Will this year be any different? Elaine Edwards reports.
An online poll on an Irish health website recently asked readers the question: "Are you going to eat and drink less this Christmas?" A total of 56 per cent of those who answered said "no". One-third of respondents in an admittedly self-selecting sample said "yes", they would eat and drink less. Eleven per cent were unsure.
Faced with this festive dilemma, the majority seems to have given a resounding rebuff to political correctness on the over-indulgence front and said: "To hell with it - Christmas comes but once a year."
Do we really lose the collective run of ourselves every December or do most mature adults know the fine line between letting their hair down and becoming a complete drunken mess over Christmas?
How many of us care to count the units of drink we consume over these short few weeks and how many of us even know what a unit of alcohol is?
Earlier this month, the drinks industry boasted of its importance to the tourism industry here in a new survey. Representatives did not have a breakdown of business in the December festive season, but admitted this time of year was "important" to the industry. The industry claims to account for around 80,000 full-time jobs and says it pays more than €2 billion in taxes to the Exchequer each year. But it also says consumption rates of alcohol are falling.
But the evidence on the streets of towns and cities throughout Ireland over the coming weeks might suggest a different picture.
Policing drunkenness at Christmas time is no easy task, especially as the law now makes it an offence for a drunk person to seek entry to a licensed premises and for a publican to serve someone who is drunk.
Insp Sean Ward of Store Street Garda Station in Dublin says he believes there has been a "noticeable" improvement in the level of drunkenness around the city centre. He says arrests for public order offences (usually drunkenness or abusive behaviour) in the area in the week ending November 28th numbered just 20, compared with 41 for the same week last year.
But he admits that on many weekend nights gardaí will deal with "belligerence", abuse, people vomiting in the street and public urination by both men and women.
At Christmas, the drunken cohort tends to split into two distinct types - young people who "can't handle" the drink they take on board, and older, "responsible" middle-aged types who are out for the Christmas party and who don't often go into town to drink.
"There are a lot more people in town and a lot more people who wouldn't normally be in town - obviously there's increased drunkenness," Insp Ward says.
Many employers no longer organise their Christmas parties in December, says Pat Delaney, director of the Small Firms Association (SFA). He says the difficulties with public transport mean some employers prefer to wait until January, when everyone can get a taxi without having to queue for hours.
Employers are much more aware these days of their own liabilities in the event of their workers causing any problems for other people because of drunkenness at a Christmas party, he says.
"There's no doubt that consumption of alcohol among certain age groups is increasing in Ireland," he says. And he says cases for alleged sexual harassment and bullying at such events are "becoming more common".
All SFA members are given guidelines which should be passed on to workers before they hold a Christmas party. "Then if anyone breaks the guidelines, it becomes a disciplinary issue for the employee," he says. "The issue here is quite serious for employers because there is an enormous duty of care on the employer, who is vicariously responsible for his workers' actions," he says.
Delaney says employers are not trying to be "killjoys" at Christmas. "But excessiveness in the workplace will not be tolerated," he says.
Declan Murphy of Epic Ireland, which runs a workplace drug and alcohol programme, believes the drinks industry is now shifting its focus to home drinking and that many people are "tanked up" before they go out.
"The simple answer is a phenomenal, overwhelming yes - we drink far too much. I've spent a lot of time thinking about the difference between the pub culture when our parents were growing up and the pub culture of today. There were always pubs in Irish society but not unique to Irish society," he says.
"But what we didn't have is binge drinking. And binge drinking has really caught on in the last 15-20 years," says Murphy.
He says some people point the finger at the Celtic Tiger and say it's about disposable income. "But I think that's only one small element of this. I think what really happened is that the drinks industry itself, almost unwittingly, was so successful in its advertising, that it created this expectation. And it created this lifestyle which everyone now assumes is what you do," he says.
Murphy says he has nothing against drink companies. "But I do have a problem with the fact that they are not playing their part in tackling the problem. They pay lip service to it. I had assembled in a room 12 months ago, the chairmen of virtually every drinks company in the country. And we talked for about two hours and the net effect of what they were saying to me was that their 'drink sensibly campaign', that little strapline, was sufficient. And I think that's nonsensical. That's a tiny attempt at addressing the cultural shift that they have created it," says Murphy.
"If you look at what created the problem, the tools to address the problem are exactly the same - you have to advertise heavily."
Murphy says he believes individuals will understand "what's sensible and what's not sensible". "They will understand what's damaging and not damaging, but collectively you need to have a huge willpower to be able to resist that. It's a much more subtle change that has to happen - you have to change the culture and that goes beyond personal responsibility.
"If the drinks industry doesn't do something very soon, I think I'll personally take up the challenge and I'll throw that gauntlet down to the drinks industry, no problem," he says.
Dr Joe Barry, who lectures in public health at Trinity College Dublin and is a member of the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, said recently that he believes the Government "bends over backwards to support the [ drinks] industry at the expense of public health".
Groups such as MEAS, set up by the drinks industry, insist that their own initiative has helped promote responsible drinking. MEAS says on its website: "You can have a great time while respecting alcohol and respecting yourself."