Plan to ban cheap drink sales steps up a gear

Plans are stepping up a gear to ban the sale of cheap alcohol as figures show that more than half of drinkers binge drink at least once a month.

Roisín Shortall, junior health minister, said she was confident of cross-government support for the ban that was part of her plan to tackle alcohol abuse.

She also said research was being commissioned to support a challenge likely to be taken against the introduction of a minimum pricing regime in Ireland.