Government applies to European Commission for new alcohol consumption warnings
The Government's statement to the European Commission said it’s estimated that 4% of total health expenditure will be on alcohol-related disease for the next 30 years unless Ireland “changes its population's understanding of and relationship with alcohol”.
The Government has made an application to the European Commission to enact regulations that would put health warnings on all alcohol products, such as “alcohol causes liver disease” and “there is a direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers”.
All cans and bottles of alcohol would also have to bear a symbol warning of the dangers of consuming alcohol when pregnant. The measures are contained in the Public Health Alcohol Bill, which has introduced a range of measures to date including minimum alcohol pricing and restrictions on advertising at sporting events.
Under EU legislation, the State has to notify the European Commission of any draft technical regulation prior to its implementation. From now, other member states have three months to respond to the proposals. Any objections would delay the adoption of these measures.
However, even when enacted, there will be a three-year lead-in time to reduce the impacts on businesses and producers in the sector.
As well as the labels on products, the regulations also provide for those selling alcohol in licenced premises to be required to “display a notice containing the same health warnings, a link to the public health website and an indication to the customer that the alcohol and calorie content of alcohol products for all ‘poured drinks’ is available in a document on request”.
For those selling alcohol online, such websites must also display the same information that would be available to customers in a physical shop. The regulations also set out the font and font size required for such labels.
In a statement to the European Commission, the Government set out the reasoning behind the measures.
It said: “The volume and patterns of alcohol consumption in Ireland are responsible for an enormous public health burden. The data shows that the Irish population is not aware of the health risks of alcohol and the draft regulations submitted here are designed to ensure that Irish consumers are directly informed of those risks and are assisted to make healthier choices about their alcohol consumption.”
It cites data which suggests that 15% of children aged 13 have already had their first alcoholic drink while over 60% of those aged 17 say they’ve been “really drunk”.
Other concerns cited include that young Irish females are now consuming equal amounts of alcohol as young males in some categories, the text reads.
Alcohol consumption in Ireland has remained “extremely high” in recent years despite the closure of pubs during Covid-19, it said, and puts an “enormous burden” on public health services. It said it’s estimated that 4% of total health expenditure will be on alcohol-related disease for the next 30 years unless Ireland “changes its population's understanding of and relationship with alcohol”.
“Despite the public health burden caused by alcohol consumption here, awareness of the health harms remains low, especially among younger age groups,” it said.
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