Cheaper drink will have very costly consequences

ACCORDING to the most recent figures available (2003), alcohol-related harm costs the state and its taxpayers around €2.6 billion a year.

This is in the form of healthcare costs, road deaths and injuries, crime, absenteeism, poor performance and lowered productivity in the workplace, lost profits, lost revenue and sick pay. And this is before we count the human cost of our drinking.

Unfortunately, many alcohol-related costs don’t appear on the Department of Finance’s balance sheet. Ireland already has extraordinarily high levels of alcohol-related harm and costs, with over half of all drinkers reporting harmful drinking patterns which can damage their health as well as those around them. Between 61,000 to 104,000 children in Ireland live in families adversely affected by parental alcohol problems.