Drinking crisis - Alcohol abuse critical social issue

In a deliberate attempt to initiate a much-needed debate Archbishop Diarmuid Martin launched his annual Lenten pastoral letter yesterday by emphasising the damage to society being caused by excessive drinking. The launch appropriately took place in O’Connell Street, Dublin, at the statue of Fr Theobald Mathew, the internationally famous 19th century temperance campaigner.

Bishop Eamonn Walsh, of the bishops’ alcohol and drugs initiative, emphasised the social difference between the present and the 1850s when Fr Mathew, the Cork-born Capuchin friar, was campaigning. Those were years of misery and despair throughout the island, while we now enjoy unprecedented prosperity. Yet we are again witnessing the destructive influence of a growing alcohol problem.

Are we going to ignore the growing problems and then in time lament, that “No one shouted stop”? Bishop Walsh asked.

The first step is to recognise that we have a problem. International research suggests that we are witnessing the development of a national tragedy.

Ireland tops the international league tables for the level of binge drinking of people under 20, and for those aged 15 and over, as well as for young women. Those disgraceful rankings should be alarming, because it is a blight on our sense of social responsibility as well as an indictment of the educational system of which we have been so proud.

According to statistics released by the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland, the drinks industry spent €65 million on advertising alcoholic brands, compared to €1.75m promoting responsible drinking in 2005, the last full year for which statistics are available. Irish people spent €6.5 billion on alcohol in 2005, which means that the industry is a massive business.

One frequently hears denunciation of the growing drug culture, but many of those who decry it, fail to recognise that alcohol is part of that culture. Alcohol is an addictive drug. Society is virtually ignoring the abuse of this drug among young people at an impressionable and formative period of their lives.

More must be done to promote responsible drinking, and society should insist that the advertising, which seeks to glamourise irresponsible drinking among young people, should not be allowed. This is an issue that needs to be debated urgently, because the likely victims could be anybody’s children without regard to class or creed.

For decades tobacco companies were allowed to target young people with advertising techniques that were as clever as they were irresponsible. They glamorised their dangerous products by using role models such as sports people or film and television celebrities. Society is now paying for ignoring the dangers of that irresponsible advertising for so long.

The consequences are apparent in the alarmingly high rates of heart disease, breathing difficulties and lung cancer. Yet we were among the very first people to do something about that advertising. We urgently need to consider means of ensuring that alcohol advertising promotes responsible drinking. The consequences of excessive alcohol are apparent in the fairly significant increase in liver disease and even full-blown cirrhosis, which is fatal.

As a society we need to recognise that the abuse of alcohol is one of the most important health issues of our time, and we must also ensure that positive steps are taken to protect, inform and educate young people to the dangers.