FOR over 650 days, the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill – a progressive piece of legislation designed to significantly and positively alter Ireland’s harmful relationship with alcohol – has languished in the Oireachtas, hindered by the powerful alcohol industry’s lobbyists.
The Bill contains a range of modest measures on price, labelling, advertising and separation of alcohol products, designed to work together to reduce alcohol consumption in Ireland, so lessening alcohol related harm. Given time, it will protect children, families and communities from alcohol related harms and create an environment that supports a low-risk approach to individual consumption.
Central to this cultural shift will be to ‘de-normalise’ the ubiquitous presence of alcohol. This is why the content of advertising is to be modified; why the intrusive visibility of alcohol in-store is to be restricted; and why the free distribution of alcohol is to be curtailed.
Source:Eunan McKinney, The Dublin People, 16/10/17
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