The failure of successive governments to develop a coherent policy to deal with the problem of excessive alcohol consumption in the Republic has had a “devastating” impact on society in general and family life in particular, a leading public health specialist said today.
Delivering the annual Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) Doolin Lecture Dr Declan Bedford said Ireland was a nation of binge-drinkers with a “dangerous ambivalence towards alcohol” and he called for restrictions on points of sale and price controls to be introduced.
He told delegates at the Royal College of Surgeons that the Republic had more places where alcohol was sold than shops to buy fruit, vegetables or milk and he described the statistics around alcohol consumption as “staggering”.
Source: Conor Pope, Irish Times, 01/12/2012