Federation: Govt report on alcohol intake 'a missed opportunity'

The Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland (ABFI) has said that a report released today on how to reduce the alcohol intake in Ireland is "a missed opportunity" to address the issue of alcohol misuse.

The National Substance Misuse Strategy Steering Group released the report today which recommended increasing the price of alcohol, including minimum pricing, and curbing the advertising of alcohol products before 9pm.

The Government body's report revealed that alcohol was responsible for 88 deaths a month in 2008 and played a role in half of all suicides and cases of deliberate self-harm.

The ABFI said that given that alcohol consumption has fallen 17%, an opportunity existed to introduce targeted measures aimed at those who misuse alcohol products as well as addressing binge and underage drinking.

The Federation added that the report was legally misguided in its pursuit of minimum pricing, and that the re-introduction of the ban on below cost selling would be a far more effective means of addressing the sale of cheap alcohol.

The Director of ABFI, Kathryn D’Arcy, said: "Ireland already has one of the highest alcohol excise and taxation regimes in Europe and our industry operates within the most regulated environment for alcohol marketing anywhere in the world. Given that we are drinking far less than we did 10 years ago we do not need further restrictions, bans and legislation in order to address misuse.

"It is the culture of binge and underage drinking that needs to be addressed. ABFI played a full role in the National Substance Misuse Steering Group and continually called for evidence-based measures to support the group’s recommendations.

"While there is much to be welcomed in the report, regrettably in some key areas the failure to provide all available evidence to support the calls for restrictions, levies and bans means that we oppose a number of key recommendations.

"The fact that a decision was taken to disregard our objections as expressed in our minority report by not including it in today’s publication undermines the final report as a true reflection of what was expressed at the group.

"Many of the key measures in this report, if taken on board, will simply penalise the average consumer who enjoys alcohol sensibly and responsibly."