Café bar plans will not address binge drinking

ALCOHOL Action Ireland agrees with the views of the Department of Health’s alcohol policy adviser, Dr Ann Hope, about cafe bars.

The notion that our binge drinking problems can be transformed by providing a new kind of bar is based purely on a hunch of the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell. and the Commission on Liquor Licensing.

There is no evidence to support such a move. If cafe bars could assist our alcohol problems, they would have been recommended by the Strategic Task Force on Alcohol, which was set up to examine how the harm caused by alcohol can be addressed.