Supermarkets must accept cheap alcohol fallout
That was the message yesterday from the father of a 21-year-old man who took his own life after a drink-fuelled night out in Mayo last March.
In a statement to the Oireachtas Committee on Health, John Higgins, from Ballina, said that alcohol was being sold at “pocket money prices” and that it played a “very large part” in the death of his son, David.
In a statement, read out to the committee by the director of Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), Mr Higgins told legislators: “You cannot accept the revenue generated by alcohol with open arms and not accept responsibility of the heartbreak associated with cheap alcohol.”
He added: “The Government owes it to its citizens to protect them from this plague. We don’t have living proof — our proof is dead.”
AAI director Fiona Ryan said the average pocket money given to teenagers was €16, and just half of that could get them drunk.
She said young people were being bombarded by advertising. She said alcohol sponsorship of sporting events in Ireland was worth €75 million and €65m was spent on advertising by the industry.
Ms Ryan said the industry was “pumping” huge money into digital advertising, which she described as the “wild west” frontier regarding regulating alcohol advertising.
She said Diageo had struck a multimillion-euro advertising partnership with Facebook, while Heineken had made a similar deal with Google.
Chief executive of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, Padraig Cribben, called for minimum pricing for alcohol and said such a move would boost jobs, not cut them.
He also called for a ban on all price-related alcohol advertising and claimed that 60% of alcohol sales in supermarkets were on promotion daily.
He described a voluntary code in the mixed trade sector (where alcohol and other products are sold under the same roof) as a “sham”.
Kathryn D’Arcy, director of the Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland, said that the “vast majority” of people drink alcohol responsibly and the problem was irresponsible drinking by the minority.
She said alcohol consumption had fallen by 21% since 2001 and the country was now approaching European norms.
Ms D’Arcy cautioned against introducing minimum pricing and said Ireland already had strict marketing and advertising codes. She said advertising in Ireland had a “very limited” ability to increase demand and the main purpose was to maintain and increase brand share.
Senator Dr John Crown, who said he is in favour of banning all alcohol advertising and sponsorship, said the alcohol industry was not a “philanthropic” body for the advertising industry and did not spend massive amounts of money on it for no reason.
