Waiting another year to introduce a sugar tax is a “grave mistake” the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland has warned.

THERE is nothing particularly new about Ireland’s reputation as a hard-drinking nation. Except, perhaps, for one thing: we did not deserve that reputation until recently.

US vice-president Joe Biden has said his career is in better shape than his golf game, as he kept his promise to play a round in Ireland.

Health experts have urged the Government to introduce long-promised minimum pricing laws in a bid to break our love affair with alcohol.

Harmful drinking “is the norm” in this country, according to new data released by the Health Research Board.

Plans for a minimum alcohol price have suffered a setback after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled similar plans in Scotland would breach EU law if less restrictive tax measures could be introduced.

The Public Health (Alcohol) Bill is a crucial response to one of our most significant public health problems. Alcohol misuse claims three lives every day in Ireland and we all know someone who has been affected in a harmful way by alcohol use — it is all too common.

The cost of spirits, cans of beer, and bottles of wine will increase under health measures designed to reduce binge drinking and the harmful effects of alcohol.

The anguished family of a teenager kidnapped and killed by the IRA yesterday have made a fresh appeal for information on the eve of the 40th anniversary of his disappearance.

With research showing a link between light alcohol consumption and cancer, everyone should reflect on their level of drinking and consider reducing it, a liver expert has advised.

Leaving Certificate students have been advised to stay safe this evening when celebrating their exam results and not to over-indulge in alcohol.

A trade association representing Dublin’s publicans had lobbied the Government to ban the sale of alcohol at sports clubhouses instead of prohibiting drinks companies from sponsoring sports events.

An alliance of doctors, HSE experts, youth leaders,and campaigners are backing an Oireachtas Health Committee report on the forthcoming Alcohol Bill.

A doctors’ group has backed Dáil calls to impose a minimum price on all alcohol products and a de facto ban on TV advertising for the items during sports events, saying the moves are vital if Ireland is to finally tackle its binge drinking culture.

Alcohol companies have no role to play in tackling Ireland’s drink problem.

LET’S raise a glass to the new Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015 which is essentially designed to protect us from ourselves when it comes to our love affair with booze, writes Alison O’Connor.

The new laws setting out a minimum price for alcohol have been broadly welcomed both by campaigners and drinks industry groups.

Provisional searches for another of the IRA's "Disappeared" victims have started in the same rural bog where weeks ago another body was found.

The body of one of the IRA’s Disappeared victims has been formally identified weeks after being dug out of a bog.

The body of one of the IRA’s Disappeared victims has been formally identified weeks after being dug out of a bog in Co Meath.

Children of IRA murder victim Jean McConville have vowed to continue fighting for justice as they gathered to mark what would have been her 80th birthday.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has delivered a stark warning to young people engaged in the social media craze of neknomination — “Give it up… it’s not a game. It could end your life.”

A High Court judge has warned of a “tsunami” of homicide and rape prosecutions if internet drinking contests continue.

Facebook has rejected calls to ban pages and videos linked to a “neknomination” drinking craze despite the death of 19-year-old Jonny Byrne being linked to the online dare.

Drinks giant Diageo has been forced to defend its Arthur’s Day celebration — a Guinness-sponsored music event — after it was attacked by doctors and well-known personalities.

Doctors have launched a scathing attack on an annual event that promotes Guinness, claiming alcohol-related illnesses in Ireland have reached “epidemic” proportions.

Many people who consider themselves social drinkers are in fact heavy drinkers, one of Ireland's alcohol policy experts has claimed.

Doctors have welcomed Government plans to address alcohol misuse, but sports chiefs have warned removing sponsorship by drinks groups could leave huge funding shortages.

The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland says it welcomes the Government's proposals to curb the excessive consumption of alcohol in Ireland.

“Habitual” drinkers, not alcoholics, account for most people with alcohol-related liver disease.

Doctors from the Royal College of Physicians are calling on the government to introduce a minimum price for a unit of alcohol.

A judge has ordered a bouncy castle operator to pay a teenage girl €13,130 in damages after she broke her wrist when she came off an inflatable slide.

Henry McCullough is one of Ireland’s great musicians. He was the only Irishman to play Woodstock, as a member of Joe Cocker’s Grease Band.

The troubled Government action plan on alcohol will go to Cabinet in the coming weeks — but it is not clear when policies to end alcohol sports’ sponsorship and introduce minimum pricing will actually be implemented.

Independent News and& Media’s chief executive Vincent Crowley has said that the election of Leslie Buckley as group chairman will not compromise editorial control and content at its titles which include the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and the Evening Herald.

A panel of senior medics is likely to recommend a crackdown on drunk and disorderly behaviour in public as part of plans to tackle the issue of problem drinking.

Independent News & Media (INM) is seeking legal advice to determine whether it can co-opt new members to its depleted board, without having to wait several weeks to hold a shareholder vote.

A BODY exhumed from a cemetery in Monaghan in the long-running search for a suspected teenage IRA victim who vanished in 1975 is not one of the so-called Disappeared.

A body exhumed from a cemetery in the long-running search for a teenage IRA victim murdered without trace in 1975 is not one of the so-called 'Disappeared'.

THE family of a man believed to have been murdered by the IRA almost 30 years ago faces a month- long wait for confirmation that his remains have been found.

The family of a man believed to have been murdered by the IRA almost 30 years ago face a month-long wait for confirmation his remains have been found.

Regular contact between the IRA and forensic investigators is guiding searches for people abducted, murdered and secretly buried during the North’s Troubles, it emerged tonight.