Time to take on alcohol industry

I WRITE to express appreciation for your editorial and the Alcohol and Ireland supplement (May 6).

You illustrate very clearly the many “ruinous” personal, health, crime and business implications of having become one of the world’s heaviest drinking nations.

But while we have come to realise the appalling consequences of the deregulation of the banking and financial sectors, it was the same government, which in 1992 released the alcohol industry from similar constraints, resulting in a 150% increase in off-sales outlets and the widespread marketing of alcohol targeted at young people.