Health authorities urge 10% hike in tax on alcohol

HEALTH authorities have called for a 10% increase in tax on beer, spirits and wine in next month’s budget, after a report showed we are the third biggest consumers of alcohol in Europe.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) published a report on alcohol consumption trends which show that levels of drinking here have stayed the same for the past four years.

The report analysed trends for the past 20 years and found that drinking reached an all-time high in 2001 and 2002, when Irish people drank an average of 11.2 litres of pure alcohol a year. This dropped to 10.6 in 2003 when tax on alcohol was increased, and has stayed the same since.