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THE HSE YESTERDAY released a major report into the harm caused by alcohol in Ireland.
The study made for stark reading: people cited family problems, physical assaults, money problems, vandalism, and drunk driving, all caused by people in their lives drinking too much.
Ireland’s attitude to alcohol has been much documented. While the number of people who abstain from drinking completely is high – 13 per cent of the population, according to a 2011 study – the way in which many people drink is problematic, with Irish adults binge drinking more than adults in any other European country.
These four graphs from yesterday’s report show the effect of misuse of alcohol and the harm that it has caused to people in Ireland.
1. The prevalence of alcohol-related harm
(For a larger version of this graph click here)
This graph breaks down alcohol-related harm by gender and by age. It shows that the biggest problem by far was physical assault. More than 1 in 5 men aged between 18 and 29 have experienced a physical assault involving alcohol. The next most common form of harm was family problems, with 20.8 per cent of women in the same age bracket reporting them.
The graph breaks down five specific issues – family problems, being a passenger with a drunk driver, property vandalised, physical assault and money problems. The results found that people aged 18 to 29 were most likely to have experienced harm as a result of alcohol, while people aged over 50 were least likely to report problems.
Almost all of the figures decrease over time, except for two: women who had had property vandalised increased, and money problems also increased over time.
2. Alcohol harm in the workplace
(For a larger version of this graph click here)
Alcohol-related harm in the workplace also registered highly, again particularly among younger people, who reported on the negative consequences caused by their co-workers’ heavy drinking. The biggest issue was with people reporting that their ability to do their job was affected by their co-workers’ drinking, with 15 per cent of men and 8 per cent of women aged 18-34 reporting that this was the case.
A lot of people have also been forced to work extra hours due to their colleagues’ drinking. Once again, young men were the most affected by this (11 per cent), closely followed by young women (8.9 per cent).
3. Alcohol harm caused to children
(For a larger version of this click here)
The figure for how children were affected by their parent(s) drinking made for particularly grim reading. Unsurprisingly, children whose parents engaged in regular risky drinking – which was defined as people who drank more than 75 grams of alcohol per month – were most likely to have been harmed, with 11.2 per cent of children verbally abused.
Almost 7 per cent of these children had been left in an unsafe situation, while 3.4 per cent had been physical abused, and another 5.5 per cent had witnessed violence. More than 10 per cent of the children had experienced one or more harms as a result of someone else’s drinking when their parents were regular risky drinkers.
4. How does Ireland compare?
(For a larger version of this graph click here)
Given all these figures, it’s worth asking how Ireland compares to other countries. The HSE study looked at two other major studies which were conducted in the US and in Canada, and compared the Irish results to them. In each case, the Irish figures were higher – in some cases up to three or four times higher – than the figures in the US and Canadian studies.
13.8 per cent of Irish respondents reported family problems as a result of alcohol consumption, for example, compared to just 5.4 per cent in Canada and 3.4 per cent in the US. The most gaping difference came in property vandalisation, with 9.1 per cent of Irish respondents reporting it, compared to just 2.6 per cent in Canada and 1.8 per cent in the US.
The figures were replicated in the workplace and when the effects on children were examined, with Ireland again reported figures higher than international comparisons.
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Won’t have to pay it here either.
@Seán C: rightly so. Rules are rules.
@Seán C:
And if we tried to collect it they would just move to the next country that offered them similar terms.
It’s a basic tenent of international tax law, you pay the tax in the country the company is headquartered in. Unless every country changes to paying tax where the profit is earned nothing will change.
@P.J. Nolan: How do you define where the profit is earned? Take Coca Cols…is the profit made where it is bottled..or is it made where the secret syrup recipe is made? Does Apple make their profit where the R&D is done or where the stuff is manufactured, or whee the stuff is sold?
@Mary Murphy:
I wasn’t suggesting that it could be changed, a large company would need a separate set of books for each country and state it traded in, but it does give a large multinational an advantage over a local company.
@P.J. Nolan: I think you are missing my point. If each subsidiary company has their own books…how do you define where the profit was made? Take this example Apple does R&D in USA and all costs for R&D come to $20bio then imagine they have sales in USA of $ 20bio, therefor the US company makes zero profit? They sell 500 mio in Ireland….does that mean they make 500mio in Ireland as they did no R&D here? This is one tiny example, they get a lot more complicated. How about Apple sells me a tune on iTunes. Where is that sale made? I have iTunes on UK account with Irish bank card using a UK address but actually live outside the EU. The server for iTunes is located in say Vanuatu where they don’t charge corporate tax. Where is the profit made?
Ireland.. the Swiss bank account of the corporate world.
This is a very good ruling for Ireland.
FG don’t collect from big guns..
Just the small guy ..
How many people do Google employ in Ireland again? That’s right.
@Diarmuid: So what you’re saying is, if I hire loads of people I shouldn’t have to pay tax of billions on sales?
Interesting…Thought you Fianna Gaelers didn’t like scoungers or leeches?
6000 employees in Ireland and create many more indirect jobs resulting in thousands of Irish familys being supported, also Google employees are encouraged to set up hundreds of volunteer projects each year to help their local communities, I for one would like to work for them and l do hope they stay in Ireland for the sake of the Irish people they employ already, I for one don’t care what they do or don’t have to pay in France!
@John Gannon: That’s all true. Yet that shouldn’t stop them from paying tax on billions in sales, whatever the jurisdiction.
Giant corporations are amassing billions in wealth, but paying little in tax. It’s up to the employees to pay the tax, and that tax base is actually diminishing as wealth distribution is edging to one end of the scale only: the top.
We’re heading back to the days where kings and queens paid no tax, but their subjects did, for the privilege of having a king or queen. That social configuration did not work for the benefit of the society, only a select few.
Let Google, Apple and others make their billions. Let them pay their tax too. Even a have a minimum corporation tax of 1-2% on all earnings. Hardy much now is it?
You pay a few 10s of millions in lawyers and accountants fees, you avoid tax bills of billions, simple as that.
Up top. Result!
.well done eire. Keep the recovery going
Of course they won’t have to pay
Great news a real superb win for all of us I’m ecstatic.
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