Debate is always best served by accurate use of comparable data. The perennial debate on the supposedly unique attachment of the Irish to alcohol consumption is nearly without exception supported by the use of flawed international comparisons of expenditure.
These expenditure comparisons purport to confirm an exceptionally high proportion of spending by the Irish on alcohol. The fundamental flaw, however, is that like is not compared with like.
A recent European Commission-funded report is just the latest in a long series of international studies which claim that Irish spending is not just higher than the other EU member states, but usually presented as some incredible multiple. On this occasion we are informed that the Irish spend a proportion that is 10 times more than the Greeks. Some years back The Economist Factbook informed us that Ireland spent a proportion of income on alcohol that was more than five other EU countries combined. When these countries were Germany, France, Austria, Belgium and The Netherlands, all not known to be teetotal, it appeared a dramatic indictment of Ireland's drink culture.
While evocative, such expenditure comparisons are wrong. The reason, as Prof Denis Conniffe and I first pointed out in 1993 in an ESRI study, is that spending on alcohol is recorded differently across the EU in contrast to Ireland. When comparisons of alcohol consumption are made, distinction is normally made between spending on alcohol in pubs on the one hand and in off-licences on the other. In most European countries only spending in off-licences is attributed to the category "alcohol" in national statistics, whereas money spent in pubs and restaurants is included in categories such as "recreation" or "entertainment".
The Irish numbers, in contrast, include spending in off-licences and pub sales combined. A recent Drinks Industry Group of Ireland report estimated that 70 per cent of alcohol in Ireland is bought in pubs and restaurants. This is a substantially higher proportion than our European counterparts, largely due to the greater propensity for Irish people to drink in pubs and restaurants rather than at home. The inclusion of both categories therefore greatly inflates alcohol expenditure levels in Ireland in comparison with other EU countries. While there is a continuing trend towards more off-licence sales in Ireland, it is the classification distinction that significantly explains the exaggerated comparisons of Irish alcohol expenditure with other countries.
In the context of a comprehensive measurement of alcohol spending, it could be argued that the Irish proportion of expenditure on alcohol is not overestimated; rather other countries' expenditure ratios are underestimated. The recent national accounts from the Central Statistics Office show that expenditure on alcohol in Ireland is 8.6 per cent of total personal expenditure, which has declined from 10.8 per cent in the mid-1990s. The recent EU-funded report claims that Ireland spends three times more than any other country on alcohol. However, using directly comparable data, a far different story is told.
Between 1995 and 2004, households in Ireland spent an average of 2.6 per cent of their personal expenditure on alcoholic beverages - when measured as off-licence consumption. In Greece the proportion is smaller, at 0.9 per cent, but certainly not 10 times smaller as widely reported. Ireland was surpassed by Finland, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic, which had averages of 3.8 per cent, 3 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively. When on-licence trade is factored back in, Ireland would emerge towards the top of the expenditure league, but by no means anywhere near the exaggerated multiples normally reported.
Expenditure figures are a combination of the actual quantity of alcohol consumed and its price. The fact that taxes on alcohol are higher in Ireland than in most EU member states inflates the expenditure levels without necessarily implying greater consumption levels. Per-capita alcohol consumption levels in Ireland are high by international standards, but not disproportionately so. The trend over the last decade was for actual alcohol consumed to rise as income levels increased significantly, but at the same time the proportion of expenditure on alcohol declined. A number of factors led to the increase in alcohol consumed, particularly the huge growth in the numbers of people in the 18-25 age group and increased inward migration of adults.
As the population ages, alcohol consumption figures both per head and per adult are declining, as might be anticipated. Irish alcohol consumption levels are not all that different to others, so that logically points to a typical bugbear - drink prices. Ireland is one of the most expensive places in Europe to buy alcohol, with Government taxes and duties at high levels that even few of the Nordic countries surpass.
While it is undeniable that there are alcohol misuse problems in Irish society, it is by no means necessarily disproportionate to our European counterparts, as the use of faulty alcohol expenditure comparisons would suggest.
• Danny McCoy is director of policy at Ibec, the employers' lobbying organisation