Sir, – Kathryn D’Arcy’s call for the reintroduction of the ban on below-cost selling of alcohol is welcome (November 18th) and if acted on by Government would be a first step on the tortuous road to combating our national alcohol crisis.
Unlike other recent socio-economic whirlwinds, ie the nascent drug-heroin problem of Dublin in the late 1970s early 1980s and our current financial-property implosion where the responsible authorities and politicians claimed a lack of warning from relevant agencies and media commentators, no such excuses can be offered in relation to our national alcohol crisis.
In light of The Irish Times November 12th reports (Una Mullally on the alcohol “price war” in which the 2003 Intoxicating Liquor Act is side-stepped by cash-starved night club owners; and Rosita Boland on the human distress presenting to Limerick Regional Hospital’s emergency department), Ms Darcy’s call for renewed commitment to education and public information does not convince.
Consumption of alcohol is moderated by cost measures and limitation on availability. A ban on alcohol advertising, to include sponsorship of sporting, music and cultural events, would assist in normalising the excessive connection between alcohol consumption and social events. Alcohol advertising aimed at the teenage and young adult population has been documented in Department of Health and Children studies as a marketing tool of the alcohol industry, just as the tobacco industry practised before them.
The Government has opportunities in both the impending budget and the imminent publication of the National Drug-Alcohol Task Force report, to reverse the inertia of previous administrations. – Yours, etc,