‘Lobbyists are lining up to kill the Alcohol Bill’

I read with great interest the article by Patricia Callan published on TheJournal.ie Voices section this week.

It’s important to recognise this for part of what I believe is a concerted effort by the industry to kill a bill designed to tackle Ireland’s harmful relationship with alcohol. The author is the Director of the Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland (ABFI), and has a vested interest in maintaining or increasing alcohol consumption in Ireland. The industry’s concern here is profit, not public health.

At the moment, the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill is slowly working through the Oireachtas. It contains sensible, evidence-based measures, dealing primarily with health labelling, availability, pricing, and advertising. This bill would not move mountains, but it would be a step in the right direction.

It’s driven by the HSE, and backed by a broad range of doctors, medical professionals, researchers, community groups and charities. This includes the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, the Irish Cancer Society, the Irish Heart Foundation, the National Youth Council of Ireland, the ISPCC, Samaritans, the National Women’s Council of Ireland, the National Suicide Research Foundation, the Union of Students in Ireland, the Rape Crisis Network, and many others.

Comments

Commenting is not available in this channel entry.