Drink culture: Legislation essential to save lives

THE extent to which the consumption of alcohol dominates Irish social, cultural and domestic life is well documented. It is reflected in our music, our literature and our art and is mostly presented as a benign indulgence, resulting in little harm to the imbibers or those surrounding them – part of what we are.

That’s the fiction but the documentary or the reality TV show reveals a very different, more disturbing story, one part of it suggesting it is just the downside of the ‘craic’; the other, a more salutory lesson in the real cost of drinking.

The cost of alcohol abuse on the health system has been highlighted in a new report compiled by the Health Research Board. It shows that the effects of alcohol consumption were responsible for 10% of money spent on public health care in 2013.