Fresh blow to McDowell’s café bars campaign

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell’s plans to introduce café-style bars to tackle binge drinking will only make the problem worse, according to the Government’s foremost alcohol adviser.

Dr Ann Hope, the national alcohol policy adviser at the Department of Health, said the suggestion that providing more outlets for selling alcohol would contain the problem is in conflict with scientific evidence

“Café bars are not going to reduce binge drinking; you just cannot parachute in a culture from one country into another. And to suggest that providing more outlets for selling alcohol would contain the problems doesn’t make sense, and goes against the scientific evidence,” she said.