Representatives of the licensed drinks trade will give evidence later this week before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, which is investigating the effect of excessive alcohol consumption on public attendance at hospitals. Alcohol abuse is a serious and growing problem in our society.
We now top the EU league in alcohol expenditure per person and this development has been reflected in weekend binge drinking, addicted youngsters, drunk driving, late night street violence and overcrowded accident and emergency hospital wards. The findings of the Joint Oireachtas Committee will be complemented by a report from the Liquor Licensing Commission, due shortly, on under-aged drinking and on the sale of alcohol by pubs, clubs, supermarkets and other outlets. The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has already promised to introduce statutory regulations requiring young people under the age of 23/25 years to carry identity cards if they are purchasing alcohol.
Last Thursday, representatives of the medical profession identified the horrendous consequences of excessive drinking. Dr Mary Holohan, director of the sexual assault treatment unit at the Rotunda Hospital, said the pattern of alcohol consumption had changed greatly. In the past five years there had been a four-fold increase in the number of women who had been so drunk they could not remember if they had been sexually assaulted. Other doctors, from a variety of hospitals, estimated that between 15 and 25 per cent of admissions to accident and emergency units were alcohol-related. They suggested banning the sale of stimulant drinks in premises where alcohol was sold, along with designer drinks like alcopops; the screening of shocking advertisements - like those for road safety - to frighten young people into changing their behaviour; the stricter enforcement of drink-driving laws; and the keeping of accurate statistics on alcohol-related treatments in hospital.
But there is a need for a more fundamental change in the way we, as a society, use alcohol. Law enforcement is not sufficient. The perception of alcohol consumption as a rite of passage must change. Sponsorship of sporting events by drinks companies should end, along with advertising that glamorises alcohol. Parents will have to take greater responsibility for their children and be aware of the negative example they sometimes set themselves. The sale of alcohol to under-18s must be treated as an offence warranting serious punishment. There has been a great deal of Government delay. A radical response is now required.