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CHEAP DRINK AND its contribution to alcohol abuse, has long been a huge problem in Ireland. It’s no secret that 2020 has been a difficult year, but despite the closure of pubs for most of it, Irish people have continued to consume and often abuse alcohol with abundant purchases at their local supermarket or convenience store.
This week, Donegal has joined Dublin in Level 3 restrictions, which is a very difficult time for people in both counties. In the midst of the discussion around restrictions and the spread of the virus, we’ve heard much of house parties and gatherings in the home.
Reducing the supply of cheap alcohol, as other countries have done, should be part of the Government’s Covid battle plan; alcohol and social distancing remain poor bedfellows.
And while there has been some concern about so-called ‘wet pubs’ as centres of transmission, drinking parties in houses, particularly when that alcohol has been bought for ‘pocket-money’ prices, should be a real concern too.
It’s been more than 700 days since the public health alcohol policy, framed by the Public Health Alcohol Act, enacted minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol products as a proven measure to reduce alcohol use especially amongst the most hazardous of drinkers.
This establishes a floor price for all alcohol products beneath which they cannot legally be sold.
This would ensure that the cheapest, strongest alcohol, carefully selected by drinkers in search of the greatest high for the lowest price – that €11 bottle of Irish Whiskey, the €12 bottle of Gin or the 2-litre dynamite flagon of Irish cider, so evident throughout the retail landscape – would become a thing of the past.
The Covid effect
Despite all the pubs being closed from the end of March through to early July because of Covid-19, and only half-opened since then, indications are that Ireland’s alcohol use has only declined by 4%.
During lockdown and since, however, trade data consistently shows that off-trade sales are booming, as more and more drinkers shift their alcohol use into their homes having unearthed the exceptional affordability of alcohol in the retail market.
Price is central to demand and off-trade price surveys consistently show how affordable alcohol is, with men’s low-risk drinking weekly guideline of 17 standard drinks within reach for as little as €7.65. A woman’s weekly 11 standard drinks can be bought for less than a fiver at €4.95.
The 2020 programme for government renewed a ‘longstanding’ commitment to implement MUP but ‘in consultation’ with the Northern Ireland Executive.
Back in 2015, the then Executive announced it would proceed with an alcohol minimum unit pricing policy having commissioned research that suggested that such a policy would lead to a reduction in alcohol use by 5.7% and could reduce alcohol-related deaths in Northern Ireland.
The recent announcement by the Northern Ireland’s Minister for Health Robin Swann to consult on the possible introduction of such a measure, however, suggests further interminable delay.
A cross-border issue
In the North, the rate per hundred thousand of alcohol-related deaths stands at 15.09 per 100,000 (NISRA 2018); Ireland’s rate currently stands at 21.2, according to the Health Research Board’s 2013 alcohol-related deaths.
While ideological objections and spurious considerations of cross border trade have stalled implementation, we cannot allow economic concerns to block and delay measures that can contribute to reducing alcohol harm and improving public health.
Only one of the five alcohol products in Northern Ireland is lower than the floor price to be established by the proposed law in the Republic. There are many reasons why people choose to shop in Northern Ireland such as currency fluctuations and VAT.
These factors, added to consumer choices, ultimately determine the purchase point of alcohol for communities both sides of the Irish/UK border.
Distance and proximity to the border are also important considerations. Over 60% of the estimated value (€458m; CSO:2018) of current Ireland to Northern Ireland cross-border shopping is done by those who live closest to the Border.
Booze is not the border draw
‘The AA’ (Automobile Association) seasonal consumer cross-border survey demonstrates that fashion items and cosmetics feature higher than any other products in motivating such cross-border shopping.
Around a third of those who shop cross border ‘intend on picking up alcohol’ where there is also a 13% difference between the VAT rate on alcohol products in the UK (20%) than in Ireland (23%).
Ensuring that cheap, strong alcohol cannot be sold in Ireland beneath a certain price is unlikely to contribute any further to cross-border shopping.
Since 2013, when the government agreed to introduce MUP, there have been 875 deaths from direct alcohol poisoning alone, likely induced by acute alcohol episodes. The Global Burden of Diseases would estimate that 19,530 deaths related to alcohol use have occurred in this period.
In a judgement from the UK Supreme Court (2017) rejecting a legal challenge by the Scotch Whisky Association et al to the proposed introduction of minimum pricing in Scotland, Lord Mance, delivering a unanimous decision, and reflecting on the incomparable values of health or economic impact on producers, stated ‘the courts should not second-guess the value which a domestic legislator puts on health’.
Ireland can no longer wait. It must lead. Implementation must proceed and pandering to vested interests can no longer be a rational government position to delay the commencement of a democratically approved public health measure.
Eunan McKinney is Head of Communications and Advocacy at Alcohol Action Ireland.
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Hopefully they do. It might knock some sense into the electorate and they’ll never put that shower in government again. Wishful thinking though.
Bertie ran away from tribunal findings. Now DOB & Lowry need to be finally accountable. Why have FG not done anything since findings against their associates since 2011.
@Stan: What’s the point, when nothing changes and no-one is punished?
He should be tried for treason against the state.
@Niall Mullane:
So should Dennis O’Brien be let back as the FG benefactor?
We reward leeches.
@Christy Nolan: I’d love to see DOB tried also. He made a fortune on the backs of corrupt politicians.
They absolutely should. He’s the personification of everything Fianna Fáil has done to this country in recent years and if they welcome him back it might help people remember what FF are like. In fact, they should go one step further and bring back the “Bertie’s Team” posters. 29% in the last poll for a party that played with the country like it was their personal toy is disgraceful.
@Antaine Ó Cáthain: That’s exactly why I voted yes in the poll…
Absolutely not. Those who took the reckless risks that brought Ireland to its knees have either been ignored or rewarded.
@O’David Dave: REWARDED
Would the chicken farmer let the fox back again
They do at their Peril, the most cunning and devious of them all is clearly trying to garner favour for a run at the presidency. lest we forget his disastrous time in power and of course Paddy the Plasterer. Teflon is this man’s byword and his amnesia is breathtaking
@Joseph Dempsey: So are his pensions breathtaking for ruining the country…..
Absolutely. He’s the embodiment of everything they stand for.
A large section of people in this country are either /or brain dead or just living in a parallel universe by continually voting for either Fine Gael or Fine Fail and actually expecting any real change, they are 2 cheeks of the same arse the definition of madness, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
@Jonny:
You are assuming that everyone wants change. (Neither FF or FG got my first preference in the last election)
Yes. He’d fit in perfectly.
Of course. They deserve each other.
@Ben McArthur: And do you know we will be telling our grandchildren the horror stories of those (BAD PEOPLE)
The Fianna Fail party are probably arrogant enough to welcome him back, but smart enough not to.
@John Killeen:
Sums it up nicely
Cute hoorism are part and parcel of Fianna Fáil and Bertie. So maybe yes!
Is this the beginning of a Presidential – Bertie up the Aras bid?
253 say yes and 43 say don’t know…..remarkable really. Clearly they’ve been asleep for the last decade or so.
@Centerro: I think a lot of those “Yes” votes think that if they accept him back it’s will screw their poll numbers…. at least I HOPE that’s their reason…….
Now I’m depressed…….
@Tricia Golden: I voted yes in the poll because if FF brought him back it would hopefully remind the amnesiacs and brain-dead of this benighted country that FF have managed to flush the economy down the toilet THREE times.
That slieveen should be in jail along with most of his cabinet of the day including Micheal Martin. As long as I live I will never vote FF. What they did to this country will have to be paid back by generations to come.
De-de-De-Definitely not!
Why stop at Bertie? Why not bring back Dempsey, Cowen, the foul mouthed Mary Coughlan, one time PD Martin Cullen, Dick Roche, Noel Aherne, the doctor from Donegal who drove drunk the wrong way down a dual carriageway, the guy who ran over a nurse, Conor Leinahan who as junior minister for science supported a creationist speaker, Michael Martin, …………?
@Larry Doyle: You forgot to mention Dermot Ahern, the ‘not a red penny’ sh#tster who promised the north-east a regional hospital and then walked away with his hands in pockets.
@Chris Kirk: Well spotted Chris, he got lost in a forest of Ahernes, didn’t he say a sore back was preventing him from “running” for election in 2011?
@Larry Doyle: and you forgot “Luas on the back of an envelope” Auntie Mary.
Ive meet Bertie he is a very decent man!
@tommy mac: Is a Man who said hello to you outside Mass or who nodded to you in a pub in Drumcondra, capable of the behaviour raised in those various tribunals?
@tommy mac: No he’s not, he’s a slimy little toad.
@Ruairi Gagarin: The man who would sell our forests to Swiss investment bankers would sell his soul to the devil.
@tommy mac: I met a murderer one time, he had beaten his pregnant wife to death with a hammer. He seemed such a nice guy…….
@tommy mac: likewise, he has huge experience and contacts, we should make good use of him.
@tommy mac: and you know this how From meeting him?
they should put him back in the cupboard with his anorak and lock it.
@TheBluffmaster2:
Say nuttin. The debates will be HILARIOUS!
@Irving Chubbie:
Sorry, that comment was meant to be for Nick Allen.
They shouldn’t, but they probably will…
He’d be on good company joining up with the rest of the incompetent, disloyal, FF politicians.
If he is not let back in then how will he be shoehorned in as President
Yes the should and finish of the job of getting rid of party altogether lol
himself and Michael Lowry could start their own party on a platform of reform and anti corruption.
@Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh: I think that party could develop into the largest in the country.
Yes, it’ll destroy them. Although I thought bankrupting the country again would be the last straw but there’s a cohort of backwoods men that’ll vote for no matter what they do
I feel a severe bout of anoraknaphobia is about to hit our great nation.
Has Paschal made provision for such contingency in recent Budget?
Not until all our sovereign debt from the bank guarantee is paid off.
@Fifty Shades of Sé: you like most other people seem to forget that ff were supported by fg in most of their actions and signed off on heaping the debt on the people and then to compounded fg,s arrogance as soon as they got into power they loaded us with the home tax and have continued with new tax,s every so often they are so inept that no one mentioned to the minister for finance that they had already reduced medical card prescription charges by 50c from 2.50 euro to 2 euro which had already been done earlier this year, so yes ff should take berty back as they can show fg/lab how it’s done….
There should be an “I don’t care” option!
@Clare Ward:
I
Instead of him thinking. of going to the Aras he should be sent to Spike Island
Good Friday Agreement
Absolutely. He’ll be a strong reminder of what the organisation is actually like, behind the PR.
Hopefully they will ans just prove for sure that the FF leopard will never change its spots!
The only reason that Fianna Fail would want him back is so that they can brush the past under a carpet and say what a grand chap he is followed by hanging a Bertie picture in the Leinster House rogues gallery alongside Dev and the rest of the cronies. Presently they are too embarrased over Bertie, that along with his mate Brian Cowan.
@Chris Kirk: They should-like a pain in the head.
Minister of finance and no bank account
I love bertie xxx
@brains mc: you do in your hole.
@brains mc: haha, why don’t marry the get
He needs to top up his 3k a week pension somehow, how can any former disgraced Taoiseach and current pox bottle live on that paltry amount.
I would vote Yes because I would like to see the Fianna Fáil try to justify it!
And hopefully it would collapse their poll numbers!
Sometimes I weep for the irrational and illogical voters of this country and their choices between almost identical nepotistic politicians.
We need better people willing to go into politics. Maybe we should FORCE people to serve for, like, 2 years. A kind of National Service.
Like
*Like a kind of National Service
@Tricia Golden: Ya think? I’m still waiting on Fine Gael to justify spending 5 years in power blaming Fianna Fail for everything only to go into coalition in the their next term. No accountability in this country.
Remember when people said that Fianna Fail were finished until Fine Gael brought them back into the fold. People would vote for Bertie again too. Irish people are morons.
@Arnold Lane: I don’t think you’ll be too popular with your last sentence Arnold.
@TheBluffmaster2: I’ve no interest in popularity. The facts speak for themselves. Look at the people saying “bringing Bertie so people will never forget what FF done.” Yes because wrecking the country wasn’t not enough of a reminder?
How can a party that wrecked the country be able to gain a position in government after an absence of just one term? Moronic electorate.
@Arnold Lane: you call people morons yet you don’t even know how many terms FF have been out of government. Lol
@Damien Gill: Really?, So enlighten us to how many terms Fianna Fail have been out of government, bearing in mind they are in a coalition with Fine Gael in everything but name right now?
Thanks for proving my point Damien.
@Arnold Lane: wrecking the country???
Question . where does the sub prime mortgage problem, the collapse of leman Bros come into the equation?
Where does David Drum, Michael Fingelton and the remaining bank managers rank in the ‘Bankrupting’ of the country stand in all this?
Next they’ll be bringing cowen back.
@Eddie Mc Keown: hope they didn’t hear that.
And his girlfriend going around with bags of sterling
@Colin Keogh: Bertie gave her two bags .
He should absolutely be allowed back. That will be a great weapon against FF at the next election.
Of course they should. Sure everything went to sh!t as soon as he left.
@Colin Keogh: any finance minister to tell the people he hasn’t a bank account , just shows what he thinks of the people of Ireland now he wants to crowl back in under the door
Only if he has to negotiate a minefield covered in honey whilst being pursued by a horny Grizzly bear..then maybe
Would he give up his vulgar pension
@Tony Hartigan: Not likely, the sod is greedier enough to want more……
Yes take him back. Anything that harms FF can only be good for the rest of us.
They’re welcome to him, as long as neither ever get any chance of running the country again.
But he has the common touch,It was common for him to touch up everyone for a dig out.
He should have his free car taken away, his Ministerial pensions should be taken away, and he should be left with his TD’s pension. He should be banned from National radio and TV and he should keep his political observations to himself. Should he have a conscience he should own up publicly to the pain and suffering he caused to so many people in this Country.
It is probably a sad reflection on the electret of this Island of ours that the die hards of Fianna Fáil will never admit to the travesty that occurred under his misguided stewardship.
For Fianna Fáil to move on as a party they need to get rid of all the bogey men from 10 years ago,including Michael Martin,willie o dear and of course Bertie
Ahern could try his luck as a tipster for 1 of the big racing channels seeing as he won so much money on the horses while finance minister
This could actually be a really funny Waterford Whisperer’s poll!
Fianna Fáil can do whatever they like, and we can judge them accordingly at the election.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: I imagine that there are still a few constituency mugs who would vote for him to get elected. They must be hard up in that neck of the woods….
It would be great everyone seems to have forgotten tricky mickey and o’callaghans money in his wife’s bank account,
FF should bring him back . So people who vote for them to know it’s a vote for cute hoorism.
Yes he should return to FF so that we will never forget what FF did to this country.
Well said, The day I heard that statement I just couldn’t believe my ears
Bertie Ahern should be kicked out the country. And if FF want him back, they should be tossed out with him. His politics set the country up for fairly spectacular ruin.
O yes bring him back we need his sort in a hurry
I don’t think it makes a difference what the people think. The grey suit brigade on the FF back benches will drive him through it. He’s the risen Christ as far as they’re concerned!
Yes. The corrupt bast^rds comeback may be enough to finish them off as a party!
Feck no!
Clearly 24% just clicked yes for a laugh because they couldn’t really be serious.
I can’t believe FF still exist. they should have been wiped out zero seats but the Irish people seem to have forgotten the f ed the country while they partied. unbelievable they are still getting votes
No change in ff so he would fit right in.
Yes. They deserve him.
The Bert is making a comeback?
Yes, it would utterly destroy them.
Who the hell are the 24% voting yes, I want to know.
If FF want to keep and attract voters they’d keep ahern well away….. further away the better.
To quote a tribunal witness ; “Will we f*€k!”
Be great to see the Bert back snivelling little fecker
Where is the ‘I find give a f##k’ answer?
Not if they want to be in government. If they did welcome him back it would be a slap in the face to the entire country. He’s gone & should stay gone!
Bertie is Fianna Fail. His only sin is mismanaging the country along with his ff friends. Which must Fianna Fail people think he did a great job.
I’m long gone from this country,but this must be a joke
@Angela O’regan: well done to you
Is this a sick joke ??
Where’s the “he should have never been welcomed by anyone in the 1st place” box?
Where’s the ‘Not in a million years’ choice?
@Bridget O’Hanlon: That would be in the Scientology contract . We hopefully have longer memories .
FF should be kicked out along with The Bert.
My kids will be paying for their mistakes for the rest of thwor lives.
Yes, it is important that people remember who and what was in charge when our economy collapsed
He should be in Gaol or Jail whichever!!
He’s worth more to us alive than dead. He should be minister for Brexit because he has the contacts and experience in dealing with NI London and the EU.
He was also the hardest working man in politics back in his day. Yes he was at the helm when the banking crisis happened but he did put the right people in the right places, they just didn’t do their job right and ill advised him.
For that he has paid the price but I still believe we could make good use out of him..
And just as a reminder, there were no homeless dying on the street under his administration like there is now.
@Gareth Cooney: When’s your next gig in the laughter lounge?
You could make a career of comedy.
Fr Ted Ahern, that money was just resting in my account.
They should bring him back as as it might encourage more sheeple not to vote for them lol
There should be a ‘F*CK NO!’ option.
24.7% of the population are idiots and 4.3% have not got a clue.
Legend. Great supporter of improving public service and probably the best finance minister the country has ever seen.
@Jimmy Ireland: jokeer
No
He would fit in well with Martin .
Enjoy your comfortable retirement Mr Ahern please
Fuk the fuk off
Fianna Fail is his natural home.
A bit late here , but anyway . Fu(k off you muppet . You ruined the country by your lack of governance , not saying anyone in power is any better , but we need to get rid of you people and your mentality .
If you can’t serve the country , go serve in a bar or something until you learn .
I’d like to welcome him into a shallow grave and break his legs with a hammer
This gangster should have gotten jail time. A stain on Irish politics.( along with a few others)
Haha asking that crook back would be like asking Captain. Smith to come back in charge of the Titanic! Makes no difference its sinking…..
This individual should not even be discussed he robbed the people of Ireland .
I wonder is that 25% Fianna Fail supporters?
Definitely yes, he led FF to 3 election victories. Something Martin will never do- he will not win any election- FF need Bertie Ahearne, not Michael Martin if you ask me.
have your say