Alcohol consumption in Ireland is increasing rapidly, and per-capita consumption has grown by 35 per cent since 1993, the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, was told last night.
Dr Ann Hope, national alcohol policy adviser in the Department of Health and Children, said the issue of alcohol in Irish society needed urgent debate.
The main problem was that adults were drinking too much, and there was also a problem with children starting to drink too young and the type of drinking among adolescents.
Dr Hope said there was an "ambivalence" among parents, with people saying they would "prefer to see kids drunk than on drugs". Our culture played down the effects of alcohol, as did advertising, causing many young people to disregard the danger of alcohol.
Listing possible solutions, Dr Hope said the most effective strategies were the least popular among the general public, and these centred on regulating availability and enforcing negative sanctions. The most popular strategies, alcohol education and warning labels, were the least effective.
The slowdown in the Celtic Tiger would hopefully provide a breathing space as the pace of overall consumption slowed. Measures that influenced both supply and demand had to be considered, keeping in mind that the drinks industry not only responded to demand but also stimulated demand.
"We need to regulate availability and promote less drinking among adult drinkers," she said.
The summer school was also addressed by Dr Michael Loftus, a Co Mayo GP and coroner who is a former president of the GAA.
He said the use and abuse of alcohol was the single greatest social problem facing the country. He had seen families disintegrating before his eyes as a result of the physical and mental suffering caused by alcohol related violence in the home.
Dr Loftus quoted from research carried out by hospitals and the Garda to highlight the links between alcohol and violence and deaths and injuries.
The drinks industry would spend £45 million this year on sponsorship of sports, festivals and many other events, and by doing this they were "buying silence". Sport was being exploited in the interests of profits for drinks companies, he said.
Political, social and even clerical leaders who attended such events were endorsing the message that drink was a natural part of these occasions. He contrasted the situation with that in France where the advertising of alcoholic drinks on TV, in youth magazines and at sports stadiums had been banned.
He asked so little had been heard about the National Alcohol Policy published in 1996. "Is it because of the strong influence of the drinks industry or lack of courage by our politicians, or could there be a connection between the two?" Dr Loftus asked.
It was time to ask those who invested in the drinks industry to examine their consciences in the same way that the concept of "ethical investment" was developing in relation to other industries.
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