Alcohol policies conflict

THE Government is effectively ignoring the health of the population by favouring those who want to extend drinking hours instead of giving more consideration to alcohol abuse concerns, a conference has heard.

Its strategy for dealing with alcohol abuse pays no more than lip service to health concerns and is contradicted by other government policies, Dr Shane Butler, an addiction specialist in Trinity College and co-director of the university's Addiction Research Centre, said.

Dr Butler said the Government was pursuing conflicting policies on alcohol one driven by public health concerns and the other motivated by liberalising the sale of drink.

"The main point about this is that there are two parallel, separate and contradictory policy processes in relation to alcohol," Dr Butler said, speaking at an international addiction conference hosted in Trinity yesterday.

Dr Butler said the liquor licensing commission, set up by the Department of Justice to reform licensing laws, was following an agenda based on competition which was diametrically opposed to the Department of Health's approach to alcohol abuse.

The interim report of the Government's strategic task force on alcohol, which focused on the harm caused by alcohol, was released this summer.

The task force is recommending a get tough approach with measures including:

* allowing health boards to object on public health grounds to pub licences and renewals;

* bringing in mandatory ID cards;

* reducing the minimum blood alcohol level to .50mg in line with continental European countries.