Call for action on availability of cheap drink
An inquest into the death of 21-year-old David Higgins, from Ballina, Co Mayo, last March, returned a verdict of suicide and named alcohol as a contributory factor.
This week, his parents John and Anne called for a ban on the availability of cheap alcohol in supermarkets and off-licences, saying drink was so cheap it could be bought with pocket money.
Speaking at the National Drugs Conference of Ireland 2011, Ms Shortall said alcohol was “literally dirt cheap” in supermarkets and other outlets.
“We have a serious problem with suicide in this country, it is the biggest problem facing our young people,” said the minister of state at the Department of Health.
She said in over half of suicide cases alcohol was a key factor: “That unfortunate young man who died in awful circumstances in Ballina brings it home to everybody the real dangers involved in having cheap drink available.
“Where there is a proliferation of house parties, young people aren’t able to handle the amount of drink that they can afford, they can’t handle it psychologically or physically and very often end up doing awful things and that young man is a particularly tragic example of that.”
The conference, sponsored by the HSE, was organised by the Irish Needle Exchange Forum, Ana Liffey Drug Project, Coolmine Therapeutic Community and the Irish Association of Alcohol and Addiction Counsellors.
Ms Shortall repeated that she was examining the introduction of minimum pricing.
A pre-budget submission by Alcohol Action Ireland has called for minimum pricing. This call is backed by 11 other charities, including Barnardos, Focus Ireland, Rape Crisis Network Ireland, the Irish Heart Foundation, the Irish Medical Organisation, the ISPCC and the National Youth Council of Ireland.
Ms Shortall told the conference she wanted to move heroin addicts in methadone treatment into recovery.
She said she was looking for information from the HSE on how long people were in methadone treatment.
She said she wanted more GPs involved in treatment, but said those who are treating addicts with methadone need to move them off the drug, where possible.
“I am concerned the way the fees, the payments, are structured. It doesn’t provide an incentive for people to move people on through the system.”
She said she thought the current payment system incentivised GPs to keep treating people on methadone.
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