ALCOHOL abuse costs the economy €2 billion annually, accounts for 25% of hospital admissions and most public order offences, a conference heard yesterday.

THE Government should financially support sporting organisations which try to sever the link between sponsorship and alcohol, a doctors’ organisation said yesterday.

JUSTICE Minister Micheal McDowell is set to unveil plans to grant an increased number of liquor licences, which will allow some cafés to sell alcohol.

IRISH beer drinkers downed more than one billion pints of beer last year as they drank most of Europe under the table.

MORE than 7,500 fewer alcohol-fuelled crimes were committed between February and August 2003, compared with the same period in 2002, garda statistics show.

MORE THAN 210 alcohol-related crimes have been committed, on average, every day between February 2002 and August 2003, according to garda statistics.

ALCOHOL education courses need to be taught to children in primary schools, an expert on the medical effects of alcohol said yesterday.

ALCOPOPS are destructive drinks that should be banned, an addiction counsellor said yesterday.

PREGNANT women have been urged to abstain from alcohol by scientists who claim that even small amounts can damage the development of a baby’s brain.

FAMILY doctors are to randomly screen patients for drink problems in a Government-funded pilot study to reduce alcohol abuse.

PARENTS are responsible for the spiralling level of teenage drinking in Ireland because they are failing to curb the problem, a survey has revealed.