The Government is to provide €1 million in funding to increase public awareness of alcohol-related harm, Irish Medical Times reports.

Speaking at the Third National Alcohol Forum Conference in Dublin last week, Minister for Health Dr Leo Varadkar announced that €1 million was to be made available under the Dormant Accounts Action Plan, which will allow grants of €41,600 to be made available to every one of the Drug and Alcohol Task Forces in the country. This will help “raise awareness about alcohol-related harm, and to change attitudes”, the Minister said.

Opening the conference, Minister Varadkar stated: “Ireland has a serious problem — we drink too much alcohol. When we drink, we tend to binge drink. More than half of adult drinkers in the population are classified as harmful drinkers. Our aim is to reduce alcohol consumption to the OECD average and reduce binge drinking.....