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ALCOHOL IN IRELAND currently costs so little that a “fatal” amount of alcohol can be bought for €10, a new survey has suggested.
In its latest alcohol market review and price survey, Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) has said that the price of alcohol in Ireland “demonstrates the remarkable affordability of alcohol to everyday shoppers”.
The report said that there is an urgent necessity to implement the Public Health Alcohol Bill, including minimum unit pricing to ensure the low-cost of the strongest, cheapest alcohol will be tackled.
The survey also suggested that alcohol can be bought at a low-cost from not just major retail operators, but across all levels of retail.
Conducted over seven days in July across four nationwide locations – two urban and two regional/rural centres – suggests that cider products remain the cheapest, strongest alcohol products available to the off-trade consumer.
Beer products are the second cheapest just ahead of wine and spirit products such as gin and vodka.
The HSE low-risk weekly guidelines on alcohol consumption for healthy adults aged 18 to 65 are currently 17 standard drinks for men and 11 standard drinks for women.
The methodology deployed sought to establish the unit cost per standard which is set at 10g of pure alcohol in each product surveyed. So, for example, a 4.3% beer product in a 500ml volume container contains 1.7 standard drinks, while a 37.5% gin product in a 700ml contains 21 standard drinks.
A man consuming alcohol within the HSE low-risk guidelines can reach the weekly threshold for as little as €8.49 and women consuming alcohol can reach the weekly threshold for as little as €5.49, according to AAI.
“At this level of affordability, for a tenner you can buy enough drink to cause a fatal alcohol overdose,” Dr Bobby Smyth, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist and AAI board member said.
The market review and price survey was carried out in two Dublin locations (south country and north inner city), one regional city (Sligo), and one rural town (Ballina) by AAI between 22 and 29 July.
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I see we don’t compare this benchmark to France and Spain where alcohol is far cheaper, no doubt another tax increase on the way to help dig out the reduced motor tax
@Miriam McEnteggart: People in France and Spain handle their alcohol a lot better than in Ireland, and don’t binge drink like people here
@Miriam McEnteggart: This survey and Alcohol Action Ireland lost all credibility when they use the term “fatal” amount of alcohol. What they are saying here is that if a man drinks more than 17 units (approx 8 pints) IN A WEEK then thats a fatal dose. There is a huge difference between drinking 9 pints in a week and drinking 2 bottles of vodka in a night and dying of alcohol poisoning. Total clowns.
@Miriam McEnteggart: yes but these countries don’t have a culture of heavy drinking,, alcohol kills more people yearly than heroin does, how long have you gone recently without alcohol? 2 weeks? A month? Doubtful,, ostriches in this country
@Alan Watts: I wouldn’t call 9 pints in a week heavy drinking but they do
@Miriam McEnteggart: yet cannabis, mdma and LSD which are NOT narcotics are illegal, it’s hilarious
@Pat Mustard: a very small minority of drinkers stick to the daily\weekly guideline intakes
@Miriam McEnteggart: The pub drinker in this country is ripped off.
@Alan Watts: I feel like a fool for falling into your obvious troll trap, but can you explain why you are saying that the drugs you mentioned are not narcotics? (I even debated using the term drugs, because, what if that’s not correct either?
@Alan Watts: More like a very small amount of people take any notice of the guideline instakes .. Most people who drink have no issues at all, so lets punish them for no reason. The more the raise taxes the more people will go elsewhere to get it cheaper, the more people will make their own beer.
I get whiskey and vodka from a local who makes with his own still, its beautiful stuff, I get it as presents for colleagues from other countries for when they here, now they ask me to get it for them.
@Bazzle Bush: the 3 substances i mentioned do not dull our senses they enhance them, they are not physically addictive like alcohol or nicotine which can be bought legally and advertised everywhere as a pleasure (not so much nicotine these days because we’ve woken up to its dangers), a narcotic is a drug that reduces your senses heroin, alcohol, codeine, maybe Google what narcotic actually means?
@Bazzle Bush: so yeah you are a fool or have fallen for the brainwashing that’s regarding them drugs
@Alan Watts: I actually did Google it while I thought I was missing something, my conclusion is that, if you really believe they are not narcotics, your senses have indeed become dulled and you are the brainwashed one. Someone on any of those substances could hardly ever be considered at the top of their game no matter how much the psychoactive properties convince them at the time that they are…
@Bazzle Bush: so you think alcohol is safer than the ones I mentioned?
@Bazzle Bush: actually shouldn’t be asking an Irish person that question….
@Alan Watts: I never made an argument for or against alcohol, don’t straw man me, sir!
@Sam Harms: Garbage. Go into most cervecerias in most subburbs throughout Spain for a coffee in the morning and you’ll see plenty of auld fellas drinking spirits. They continue throughout the day moving from one bar to another. You could argue that it’s not binge drinking because it is a daily affair but it’s not like binge drinking is exclusive to here.
@Miriam McEnteggart: The clue is in the name – Alcohol Action IRELAND. We have a particular drink culture here that is radically different from the French one particularly when it comes to binge drinking, the most harmful type.
However, France has a alcohol mortality rate that is somewhere between 2 to 4 times ours depending on which study you read.
@Sam Harms: people are still binge drinking? I thought that’s why they brought in the 10pm curfew for off-licences (trying to push people into bars more like). In those countries you’re not in a mad scramble to get drinks in before the ridiculous closing times we have here, which put pressure on people to cram as much in as they can in a short space of time.
“Demonstrates the remarkable affordability of alcohol to every day shoppers”. They say this like it’s a bad thing. Alcohol is legal. The majority of drinkers are pretty responsible. Why should a responsible person pay way over the odds for a product that’s abused by a smaller percentage.
@Luke Sharpish: http://alcoholireland.ie/facts/alcohol-and-costs/ 10% of the public health budget is spent on alcohol related treatment, that’s excluding emergency treatment, general practice, psychiatric care and alcohol treatment. It accounts for over 160,000 hospital bed days per year. It costs the tax payer roughly 1/3 of what we spend purchasing it each year. So yeah, it might not be the worst idea in the world. And yes I do drink.
@Dave O Keeffe: the cost to the taxpayer is supplemented heavily with the massive taxes already put on alcohol products, tobacco is in that bracket too..
@Hardly Normal: work out the shortfall between the taxes and the taxpayer spending on alcohol. It could do with being a bit less.
@Dave O Keeffe: It’s great to have a nanny like you, tellinng the rest of us how to live our lives.
@Dave O Keeffe: It’s great to have a nanny like you, tellinng the rest of us how to live our lives.
@Edward Smith: where did I tell anyone what to do? I didn’t criticise anything all I’m saying is that we as drinkers could cover a bit more of the costs of drinking.
@Dave O Keeffe: show me the numbers because I’d suggest different! How many people show up to hospital for alcohol related illness compared to how many people spend money on alcohol over a lifetime and never need any health care due to the consumption of alcohol?
@Luke Sharpish: The Health Research Board in 2013 found that 53% of us are drinking in a way that is not just putting our health at risk but IS or will damage our health. That is not a small minority and the reason we all should be concerned is that alcohol harm is sucking up 10% of our health service budget.
@Dave O Keeffe: Really?- First of all we could save billions not only millions if we had a proper functioning Health Service or HSE which is deeply dysfunctional and beyond repair – we are building a children’s hospital without facilities for adolescent or a maternity hospital or evne in the vicinity for 1.5 billion while in Scandinavia they can build a far superior children/adolescent hospital with easy and quick accessibility for 300 million. And what about personal responsibility and how do you think upping the price (we are already the most expensive alcohol in the EU) will change peoples behaviour especially binge drinkers, young and problematic or alcohol dependent drinkers – a ludicrous assertion not backed up by facts made by the likes of Mr. Murray (a Professor would you believe) who states this and other ridiculous so called ‘fact’s’ while also asserting that education has no role to play in altering a person’s pattern of behaviour and so should be ignored! And where is this so called ‘supper cheap’ alcohol available because I sure cannot find it. If these assertions by Murray & Co. were true then countries (including high tax ones) like France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark etc. would have severe alcohol issues and people staggering around from early morning onwards.
@Luke Sharpish: Where is this cheap alcohol that is being continually (and erroneously) referred to? I can buy at a local supermarket in Denmark, a ‘high’ tax country, wine, beer, gin, whiskey etc. at a fraction, between 1/2 and 1/8, of what I pay here and between the hours of 07.30-20.00, 360+ days a year, without having to wait (for some silly reason) till 10.30 or 12.30…..
We need to find and treat the issues or causes of alcohol abuse/misuse not bring in a mind numbingly dumb action like raising the price of an already over priced and expensive commodity, which will do nothing to help the victims of alcohol abuse/misuse – typical Irish solution to a problem.
AAI also want alcohol in shops and supermarkets to be hidden in a cupboard so people cannot see it and refrain from ‘impulse’ buying – another daft suggestion from them.
Alcohol is sold to people over the age of 18. Adults who are entitled to make their own decisions. Just because I can buy a fatal amount of alcohol foe €10 doesn’t mean I’m going to do it. Just because I buy a bottle of gin, doesn’t mean I’m going to drain the bottle in one sitting and I would imagine that I’m not in a minority here.
@Gasher: I can buy a fatal amount of turpentine for less than that
@Hardly Normal: and I can jump off a bridge for even less
@Gasher: I bought a fatal amount of bleach for 1.99 today
Here we go again! Must be a budget coming up.
Costs half the price here in Germany
@Johannes Baader: im sure a lot of things are a lot cheaper in Germany including politicians salaries and pensions
@Johannes Baader: Sin é. Tá sé nuacht bréige. Lán bolscaireacht. Tá an scéal sa Ghearmáin le alcól níos measa ná in Éirinn, go háirithe lena daoine óga. Leis an tobac chomh maith. Ba mhaith leo sinn a cheapadh go bhfuileamar níos measa ná an fhírinne. Ní ach leithscéal é do arduithe cánach!
That’s the thing. It’s all fake news. All propaganda. The situation with alcohol is so much worse in Germany than Ireland, especially with the youth. Smoking also. The reality is, we’re not as bad as they want you to believe. Just an excuse for a tax increase.
@TheJournalAsGaeilge: Was in Germany for 3 months last year, was very surprised with how cheap alcohol and tobacco was .. also was surprised to find pubs that people could smoke in too.
@Irish Bob: sin é go díreach!
Exactly!
@Irish Bob: That’s because In Germany, Scandinavia etc. they believe in true competition, treating their voters and citizens like adults who then behave as such. They also have politicians and councilors who know how to plan, are happy with a living wage, have a vision for a fairer more decent society which they then implement on a short time basis in a cost effective and efficient manner.
Here in a Bulgarian supermarket i can buy a bottle of Bushmills for 10 euro, Gordon’s gin for 9 euro, good bottle of wine 13/14% alcohol for 2-4 euro, beer 60 cent for 500ml bottle. Yet i see no one dying from alcohol poisoning.
There’s no pub culture here, it’s cafe/restaurant culture. Lots of parks in Burgas, many restaurants and cafes in them. You don’t find gangs of louts sitting around drinking, harassing people. Women can walk through these parks any hour of the night alone without fear, so can men.
It’s all down to culture. It seems nothing can be done in Ireland, no celebration, no festival that won’t have the drinks industry pushing advertising, sponsorship to the maximum.
This is the greedy Irish drink industry, the pubs, trying to protect its profits by demanding an increase in supermarket pricies, under the guise of a concerned, benign organisation, worried about people’s health.
@Dave Doyle: and yet Bulgarian consumption of alcohol per capita is similiar to irelands, or higher, depending on what report you read.
@Dermot Lane: And Ireland’s consumption of alcohol is just a little higher than the European average. We are pretty much in the middle.
@Dermot Lane: And, i use my grapes and apricots to make my own alcohol, Rakiya. Theres even a distillery in the village where i bring the fermented fruits for “boiling”. Imagine that.
@Dave Doyle: l guess my point is we consume alcohol in a very different way here, but that doesn’t make us bigger drinkers than most other countries. There are societies where to be seen drunk in public is a shameful thing, yet alcohol consumption can be higher than ours. Here, our drinking is very public and very much a social thing, or at least it was until recently, it’s changing a bit with the decline of pub culture.
@Dermot Lane: He regularly saids Bulgaria is a utopia and far better than Ireland. No homeless there, no corruption etc.
@Dermot Lane: If the police catch you drinking on the streets, parks or other public places here, you’re in big trouble.
This effort to increase supermarket prices is all about protecting pub profits. Nothing else.
@Niall Brew: A lot of corruption here in Bulgaria. Most of it criminal more than white collar.
I do regularly make comparisons, never claimed any utopia, but i see how a lot of the issues affecting the lives of ordinary Irish people, like the public health service, is done much better here. Yet it’s a poor country.
@Reuben Gray: European average is 9.1L per capita. We are at about 11.4L. 20% above the average and that translates into 3 lives needlessly lost each day.
@Dermot Lane: What Dave and indeed myself are endeavouring to point out is that this is a cultural issue and a matter addressed by education and by therapy or CBT’s for those who cannot alter their destructive behaviour – the price of alcohol has little or no impact on a persons behaviour, excessive drinking or alcohol dependence – These people need help or therapy/CBT and our culture needs to change, not stupidly raising the price of so called ‘cheap’ alcohol (its not and its not readily accessible). Do you want even more children to do without their lunch or bus fare, as I have encountered, because their parent(s) needs another bottle to get them through the day? People will literally beg borrow or steal money to ‘feed’ their habit(s) including alcohol dependency. We need to look at WHY do people binge drink or are dependent on alcohol and solve that, instead of blindly following the Pied Piper or those who think that we are little children who need to be chastised and that they know better while they obviously don’t.
@Dave Doyle: Exactly – Where are these so called cheap prices? I can buy at a local supermarket in Denmark,a ‘high’ tax country, wine, beer, gin, whiskey etc. at a fraction, between 1/2 and 1/8, of what I pay here and between the hours of 07.30-20.00, 360+ days a year, without having to wait (for some silly reason) till 10.30 or 12.30….. So we need to find and treat the issues or causes of alcohol abuse/misuse not bring in a mind numbingly silly action like raising the price of an already over priced and expensive commodity, which will do nothing to help the victims of alcohol abuse/misuse – typical Irish solution.
You can get a fatal level of toilet duck for €1, it doesn’t mean people are out to drink it all in one night though.
@Ben Coughlan: or a box of tide pods unbelievably people on social media DO eat those.
@Ben Coughlan: you can get a knife for a few quid and stab yourself to death. We NEED minimum knife pricing NOW!
@Ben Coughlan: Or Roundup weedkiller – “degraded in soil”
@Dave Johnston: thanks for the LOL!
First it was TV advertising.
Then it was opening hours.
Then it was adverts near schools or youth clubs.
Then it was free samples.
Then it was happy hours.
Then it was showing people in adverts.
Then it was minimum pricing.
Yet apparently we still have a drinking problem.
But if we implement this measure suggested by the same people who came up with the previous 7 ideas, it’ll be better.
Sure.
@JΛCQUʘRΛПDΛ: that opening hours perplex me. I finish work at 10. Can go to pub for two and a half hours, and onto a club for a couple more hours, only to be poured onto the street amidst the chaos. But can’t get a bottle of wine and go home??
@JΛCQUʘRΛПDΛ: and sport don’t forget sport – Oh wait not yet apparently most FG’ers like rugby
@coilin Hutton: Seems not Coilin but I can buy wine, beer, gin, whiskey etc. at a fraction (between 1/2 and 1/8) of what I pay here and between the hours of 07.30-20.00 at my local supermarket in a small village in Denmark 360+ days a year and I have never seen someone drunk or staggering around, well maybe 1 or 2 (no actually that was me :-) )………..
You can buy a length of rope for a fiver and a hell of a lot of ppl die from suicide but I don’t see as much interest in a “rope tax”, or ya know.. investment in mental health. Just because we can buy something does not mean we will use it incorrectly. Alcohol is sold to adults, who mostly make adult decisions!!
@Fergal Barry: Well said Fergal – people with alcohol problems, usually caused by behavioural or mental issues (mental anguish), need therapy or CBT’s etc. not higher priced alcohol and we as a society need to change through education, altering our habits etc. not by raising the alcohol price or hiding alcohol behind doors to stop ‘impulse’ buying (another daft idea proposed by the AAI and similar groups).
Tax em the FFG way.. Only of course in the interest of the people..
I feel @ my age im responsible enough to enjoy my few pints @ home which I buy in the supermarket which offers great value in alcohol.i stopped going to pubs.as they are now out of reach of my pocket especially in Dublin and one has more entertainment to choose from @ home than constant sports on the telly in pubs
A fatal level of alcohol can be bought for €10. In France a fatal level of alcohol can be bought for €5. Are alcohol fatalities twice as high in France? If not, then perhaps this information isn’t as useful as it first appears. Perhaps there’s some other factor at work.
@Derek Walsh Ⓥ: They have far higher levels of liver disease than here. Because they eat with their alcohol they have a different culture. But alcoholism is a massive problem in France. Its a bit of a myth that its not.
@Niall Brew: they also have 62million more people living there. Obviously they have a higher rate of everything.
A survey by “Alcohol Action Ireland” I would imagine the results of this independent survey was ever in doubt.
@Colm Hughes: 100% agree. It shouldn’t be left to a charity to monitor these figures. Given the high cost of alcohol harm economically and socially, government should be doing it and industry should be funding that.
I live in Switzerland and alcohol is cheaper in the supermarket here. Alcohol in Ireland is already quite expensive. Constantly increasing the duty and pricing is wholly and utterly ignoring the reasons the country has such a problem with alcohol in the first place.
@Róisín: Your are right n the button Róisín, we need to treat the causes of alcohol abuse/misuse and try to change our culture/habits, not raise the price of an already expensive commodity. I remember a child at my daughters primary (in Dublin) coming to school without lunch or bus fare becasue his parent needed the money to buy some more alcohol to get throught the day and my daughter shared her lunch etc. with him but no one took any action or tried to help them, they just ignored it – I can buy at a local supermarket in Denmark in a another ‘high’ tax country wine, beer, gin, whiskey etc. at a fraction (between 1/2 and 1/8) of what I pay here and between the hours of 07.30-20.00, 360+ days a year and I have never seen someone drunk or staggering around, well maybe 1 or 2 (no sorry that was me actaully :-) )………..
Can buy a sharp knife for less than half that… are we supposed to limit that in case some people abuse them?
@Pilib: Sharp knives aren’t addictive. Sharp knives aren’t mood altering. Sharp knives aren’t carcinogenic. Sharp knives aren’t associated with the over 200 diseases that alcohol is. The abuse of sharp knives hasn’t been normalised. I think you need a better analogy.
Could buy 2 litres of white spirits for a few euro and knock myself right out
@JustOneScoop: I was thinking meths but good no one thought of homebrew?
But you can’t buy more than one pack of paracetamol. Go figure
Still great value to be found out there
@Dylan Toback: there’s a lovely red wine in ALDI for €4.50 I was shocked how nice it was I bought it to make a stew and ended up drinking it !!!!! I remarked to the manager about it and he actually told me it’s their best seller.
@Jonathan Power: how did the stew turn out ?
@Dylan Toback: they should go to Spain where the same fatal level of alcohol can be bought for €5 and they don’t have the same problems.
Alcoholism is only a symptom of a bigger problem. You don’t treat the symptom, you treat the cause.
It’s basically like doctors give you a pill for something that makes you feel sick, then another pill to stop you feeling sick!!
@Chewey Bacca: had pizza instead after the first 4 bottles :)
this article is ridiculous misinformation. Where and what alcohol can you buy for €8.90 that will kill you??
Either way, attitudes not price are the issue. Spend money and educate to change attitudes.
Increasing prices is basically saying the rich are able to manage their alcohol intake but those poor people need to be controlled.
Also during the years 2008 to 2016 the price of alcohol decreased and so did average consumption which makes a nonsense of this whole minimum alcohol pricing policy. Money raising scam that it is.
@john doe: Exactly and well said – we need to treat the issues underlying or causing alcohol abuse or misuse, not support a ludicrous assertion by Prof. Murray & Co. that is put out on the airwaves on a regular basis for the last 5 years or more without any form of challenge to their unfounded misinformation by the eh ‘interviewer’.
@Dylan Toback: Where – I cannot find alcohol at these so called cheap prices? I can buy at a local supermarket in Denmark in a ‘high’ tax country wine, beer, gin, whiskey etc. at a fraction, between 1/2 and 1/8, of what I pay here and between the hours of 07.30-20.00, 360+ days a year, without having to wait, for some silly reason, till 10.300 or 12.30…..
I could probably drown with a litre of water in my lungs and that only costs about €1.50 much more affordable, so a huge tax on bottled water must be more of a priority.
Tackling why people binge drink is more sensible than charging regular people who enjoy a modest drink to save them from themselves.
Get merry for €8.49!!!! Oh please names the premises.
Couldn’t buy a ‘fatal’ level of weed if I won the euro millions, but yet that’s illegal?
A fatal level of a great many things can be bought for less than 5 Euro in Woodies or B&Q.
So after minimum pricing, say €20 would be enough to cause a fatal overdose?
Synopsis. Alcohol is a problem for a small minority of people therefore the govt has a green light to tax the hell out of it.
@Narl O Keill: Health Research Board tells us about 54% of us are drinking in a way that is or will harm our health. The perception that it’s a small minority that misuse alcohol is a distortion from our normalisation of harm – one sustained eagerly by the drinks industry.
So 17 standard drinks is around 9 pints and this is the low risk threshold? Can imagine a lot of people will be saying happy days to that.
@Toon Army: Also, for full disclosure (and just so we can make sure we avoid such ungodly establishments) surely they should publish the names of these shops?
@Toon Army: you do know that’s 9 pints per week, not per night?
@Dermot Lane: yes
I can probably buy a fatal level of Panadol for a tenner. Is this the benchmark that we are going to use to increase taxes on items for the future.
A unit of standard alcohol can range from 8g to 20g depending on the European country. So in Austria you can drink twice as much before it is deemed fatal based on those stats. Alcohol abuse in Ireland is an issue but there should be at least a consensus on what is a standard unit of alcohol in Europe. Nothing to stop the Government setting the standard unit at 8g (currently 10g) with the stroke of a pen and we become even bigger alcoholics that require additional taxing.
A lethal quantity of petrol would be a lot cheaper. Maybe we should ban that too.
A tenner wouldn’t go very far in a irish pub.
I drank Canada Dry have the researchers have this info ?
More kite flying for a strategy that doesn’t work. I like a few beers every now and again and I’d rather not have to pay even more for it. Alcohol prices are already ridiculously high in Ireland, hasn’t stopped problem drinkers from drinking.
If exorbitant pricing worked drug dealers wouldn’t make a bean. They know better than anyone that a junkie will pay anything for their fix.
We have some of the most expensive alcohol in the world, taking into account general cost of living vs alcohol pricing.
More spin to rob public
It has been found in numerous studies that problem drinkers are the least sensitive to price. They are addicts. Increasing the price of hard drugs doesn’t reduce consumption, the same is true for alcohol. They don’t don’t say it in the article but a “potentially” lethal dose of alcohol for a small adult weighing about 60kg is about a litre of spirits in a very short period of time. That’s a litre bottle of cheap vodka or equivalent in an hour or so.
Anyone who drinks that much in that short a time is not going to care if it was €10 or €50.
All price based anti-alcohol strategies do is target responsible, low to moderate drinkers. It’s especially harsh on low earners who might still be responsible drinkers. Problem drinkers are literally too drunk to care how much it costs.
Oh really?
Wine in Italy from €1.5, beer much below €1
Beer in Poland from €0.5, wine from €2
Why I’m still buying whiskey (even Irish one) when I’m abroad? Where are those cheap Irish shops with alkohol?
So if a fatal amount of alcohol cost €20 would that be better? …….. let’s double the cost
Is crossing the HSE low-risk guideline a fatal dose? I don’t think so.
Thats enough for a good bottle of poitin and a tube of pringles
I’m pretty sure you can also buy a fatal amount of water for €10 as well.
If you add the supermarket bargains it’s even cheaper – my local Tesco is like an off license that happens to sell food – I hate seeing OAPs with the 6 or 12 wine offers , you know they’re married to the bottle
@Gaz Barclay Dunnes: Don’t go in there so, Gaz, if their prices & policies upset you.
Adults can make their own choices.
@Pseud O’Nym: well you see booze is a drug , so it’s a bit different and state licenses it , so burying your head makes no logic , sort of head up the asre Pseud
@Gaz Barclay Dunnes: So you treat the issues or problems behind or causing the alcohol abuse/misuse, not by upping the price of an already outrageously expensive product……..which is kind of eh extremely stupid behaviour or akin to sticking your head up some unmentionable place don’t you think?
Is this Waterford whispers ??
I can buy a fatal amount of knife or rope for a fiver, and a fatal amount of water runs out of my tap at home. Cultural, social and mental health health issues are the root causes of Ireland’s toxic love affair with alcohol, minimum unit pricing and increased taxation just continue the trend of commoditisation of vice from a corporate fetishising government that that sees the majority of it’s citizens as customers and assets to be exploited rather than shareholders to answer to.
A fatal dose of bleach can be bought in Lidl for 69 cent
@Stephen McGrath: Yes but its bouquet is not as good a Burgundy – I know I tried it, but I may have to back on it if they keep on upping the price of this already outrageously expensive commodity………..
Whoever wrote this bull is either very gullible or has never been abroad.
So we’ll get about 5 euro more after tax post budget but a bottle of Wine will be €5 more than it is now.. Great plan.. FFG out now!!
Bring the cost of drinking in pubs down so people can drink in a safe environment. The amount they drink won’t be predetermined. If they get messy they’ll get thrown out, that doesn’t happen at home or in a field. They might drink less when they realise that they’ll have a better chance of pulling when not completely inebriated. Young people won’t go on rounds as they can’t afford it so a lot less peer pressure – while we’re on that, lower the age of drinking in pubs and don’t serve spirits to anyone under 18. Change the pub hours so people don’t stack up at closing time – have pubs closing at different times (this will also lessen fights on the streets). This will all create more jobs and people will actually learn how to drink properly / responsibly.
Have the balls to do this!
Could say the same about the euro saver menu in McDs.
I could buy a lethal amount of toilet duck and consume it, maybe we should tax that to the hilt too?
Yet weed which is nonfatal and can actually help many people is still illegal in this backward little country!
@Kevin Mc Donnell: it can be fatal if you don’t pay your supplier
Ireland is expensive enough as it is, can you guys just let us be adults please.. we are capable of making decisions for ourselves.. if triggered by price that is your problem.. but let me guess another tax! If tax was sex I wouldn’t ever need a woman
10euro? and here I have been spending 15 euro like a fool
@James O Carroll: and still alive to tell the tale
Good to see most people are not falling for this crap ..
The UK and Ireland are the only EU countries to have a binge drinking culture, the same 2 countries that have closing time .. The Binge Drinking Culture started with Closing time, at last orders people getting loads of drink sometimes more that what they had already drank and have too drink it in an hour.
Get rid of closing time, let Pub owners decide when they close, also reduce price in Pubs by reducing costs and get people back into Pubs rather than drinking at home
How much does a fatal dose of Domestos cost? Or water, which is fatal in high doses
Addiction Counselling 101
It’s not the drug but rather the attitudes towards the drug which is harmful. Fixed Pricing has much less impact on addiction than early adolescent education on drugs and alcohol. We need a paradigm shift not a price change
@Seán Ó Conbhuidhe: Addiction Counselling 101 – not everyone who drinks harmfully is an alcoholic.
Addiction Counselling 102 – the WHO says price is one of the top 3 most effective ways to reduce alcohol harm. Good counsellors operate on evidence, not conjecture.
@Ireland Unlocked: WHO’s recommendations are harm reductionist published in 2010 and 2012. They also view addiction through the disease model. We are now in the age of biopsychosocial interventions and early education has shown to be the most effective long term strategy, (2017,2018)
@Seán Ó Conbhuidhe: We are not solely talking about addiction here. We are talking about a level of harmful drinking that is sucking up 10% of our health budget.
Can you cite sources for your claims on education?
@Ireland Unlocked: You’d be pretty hard pressed I think to find anyone in Ireland who isn’t aware that alcohol can be harmful. The suggestion that somehow we can inoculate kids at an early age against all the environmental, social and economic triggers that lead to harmful drinking in later life with ‘education’ seems pretty suspect to me TBH.
@Ireland Unlocked: I think you meant to say biopsychosocial. And cognitive behavioural learning models have shown a direct correlation with early childhood negative formulations and pleasure seeking behaviour’s. If you want proof read anything by Ellis, Beck, Glasser. Holland already has such a program and they have reduced addiction related harm in their society. Not through prohibition and pricing but through education and legislation. So explain that?
@Seán Ó Conbhuidhe: Spain has cheaper alcohol. As does Italy and France but no where near as much harm. So what’s the difference? Psychosocial attitudes to alcohol. That’s the common denominator. Where do these attitudes come from? Childhood experiences and core beliefs. How do we reduce the impact of these? Psychoeducation. End of
If they went into some of the public houses and hotels and saw some of the prices,Hotels with the rate of vat they are paying a total rip off,robbing tourists blind,then the so called clubs charging pup prices,who are these people are they employed by the government to high price of drink
try and increase the all ready
Cost of fuel is extremely high.. can governance not tackle that .. instead of putting the price of drink up .. just like cigarettes if people want to get drunk they will ..
Nanny state blah blah blah
This is all designed to kill the Irish pub culture. What we called craic, that elusive thing touted by the tourism industry. But it’s gone now. Tourists have a night in some hole like Johnny Fox’s or the Arlington hotel and think they had the craic. Well they didn’t and they never will coz the pub is dead. Well done pubs you killed the goose that laid the golden egg.
Helped along no doubt by dry arse middle class rugger types who frown on drinking but are happy to drown in Hoino in D4
@Kevin Slater: believe it or not this is designed to prop up the pup trade. Its even in the FG manifesto to do so. The long term plan is to make drinking at home prohibitively expensive so people flock back to the pubs. Of course its a flawed strategy while pubs remain expensive and have ridiculously tight opening hours. Plus people got used to drinking at home during the recession and most people prefer it, so the upcoming minimum unit pricing will simply fuel a black market and encourage people to make homebrew, not force them back to the pubs.
@Kevin Slater: What has damaged pubs is below cost selling and loss leading alcohol sales in supermarkets. It’s now drastically cheaper to drink at home.
And I note that the middle class rugger types are the very ones who most robustly defended the continuation of alcohol sports sponsorship. Not sure I’ve ever seen anyone in the rugby community frown on drinking either.
As a parent it is my responsibility to educate my kids on the dangers in life, be it drugs, tobacco, speeding or alcohol. The fact that you can buy a bottle of gin, vodka or whiskey etc for a tenner or less is immaterial. I’ve had to talk to my nephews about the dangers of excessive boozing and I will no doubt have a similar conversation with my own kids when they are of age and over do it. It’s time parents stepped up and raised their kids to be responsible instead of waiting for someone else to do it.
@Neil Fitzpatrick: Aren’t your kids fortunate to have such a diligent father. Not all kids are so lucky. They deserve a better response from the rest of us than some finger pointing.
@Neil Fitzpatrick: Very good points – we need to educate our and others children be it speeding, reckless driving, alcohol use/abuse, litter, legal and illegal drug use/misuse,
personal responsibility and civic duty (including our own).or whatever……………
What an absolute rubbish article by absolute clowns!!sure I can buy ten euro worth of diesel and drink it buy I won’t!!
A fatal amount of petrol can be bought for €2
You can buy a fatal amount of paracetamol for less than 5euro as far as I am aware! Shocking!
Scratch one of these Finger-Wagging, Nanny-Stater, sanctimonious bores and you’ll find a control freak every time. It was their ilk that drove me out of the pub and into the Aladdin’s Cave of cheap – albeit solitary – home drinking with their Smoking Ban. And now these same muppets are whinging about people drinking cheaply at home? Didn’t think that one out too well, did they? Two raised fingers is my response to the lot of ‘em.
Pint larger in Spain €2 Ireland €5.60 .. nanny state trying to ruin the Irish pub .. feck off
@James Reilly: MUP won’t affect the price of booze in pubs. We’ve had two excise increases in the past 20 years so the actual increases in pub prices are drink industry sponsored ones.
What did the damage to pubs was below cost and loss leading booze from supermarkets and a failure to move with the times and accommodate the changing requirements of customers.
The Headline Of This Article Is Exactly The Reason Why Nobody Pays Attention To These Silly Warnings.
Having wasted my time reading the article I regret that it’s time I will never get back.
Where can 65 units of alcohol be legally bought for under €10.00?
In Ireland we clearly do not have a supply-side problem with regards to alcohol consumption. For example availability or price. As people have noted here, alcohol is cheaper and more freely available elsewhere. We have a demand-side problem.
What is completely bonkers is that the extra spending on the cheapest alcohol when minimum pricing is introduced, much of it spent by problem drinkers, will not be collected as taxation but will go to the retail and drinks industries. That money should be ring-fenced for addiction treatment services. Instead we are faffing around with initiatives such as putting cancer warnings on bottles of stout.
It is mad that a €6 billion per annum industry is not in some way levied in order to deal with the problems its product can cause.
Bottle of wine in Greece 2 euro, bottle of Bacardi 1litre 13 euro, bottle of absinthe 15 euro!!! I call absolute BS on this minimum pricing just another way to rip us off!!!
A bottle of bleach would do the job for a cheaper price. People need to take some responsibility for their drinking, more tax won’t solve the issue.
Hopefully they bring the prices up and close the pubs earlier. That’ll show us!
Fatal amount of knives can be bought for under a fiver, typical wording in the negative to suit a certain agenda, paper never refused ink
Another misinformed and inaccurate article on alcohol and its pricing. Where is this super cheap alcohol that is being continually (and erroneously) referred to on our airwaves by Prof. Murray & Co. without any challenge from the interviewer? I can buy at a local supermarket in Denmark, a ‘high’ tax country, wine, beer, gin, whiskey etc. at a fraction, between 1/2 and 1/8, of what I pay here and between the hours of 07.30-20.00, 360+ days a year, without having to wait (for some silly reason) till 10.30 or 12.30…..
We need to find and treat the causes of alcohol abuse/misuse and help those affected by it, not bring in a mind numbingly dumb action like raising the price of an already over priced, expensive commodity, it will do nothing to help the victims of alcohol abuse/misuse – another typical Irish solution to a problem.
AAI also want alcohol in shops and supermarkets to be hidden in a cupboard so people cannot see it and thus refrain from ‘impulse’ buying – another daft suggestion from them.
Will we ever be seen or allowed to behave like responsible adults or are we to forever run our country like little children would?
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