Home > Royal College of Physicians of Ireland calls on the Government to urgently adopt the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill.

[Royal College of Physicians of Ireland] Royal College of Physicians of Ireland calls on the Government to urgently adopt the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill. (08 Sep 2015)

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Budget 2016 is an opportunity to improve the health of the nation

In a pre-budget submission, the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) is calling on the Government to urgently adopt and implement the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015, to take action to tackle Ireland’s obesity crisis and reduce the harm being caused by tobacco.

Prof Frank Murray, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and Chair of its Policy Group on Alcohol says this Government has an opportunity to leave a legacy by introducing legislative measures that can save lives and address our harmful relationship with alcohol. 

“Three people die every day as a result of alcohol in Ireland. This is so many more deaths than is caused by road traffic accidents, where targeted evidence-based measures introduced by Government initiatives have been successfully shown to save lives and reduce harm. Our hospitals are overcrowded, a problem exacerbated by the fact that at least 1,500 hospital beds are taken up every night as a result of alcohol.

“Alcohol costs the Exchequer €3.7 billion a year while the cost borne by so many Irish men, women and children as a result of our heavy consumption of alcohol is catastrophic. The Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, will publish the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill in the coming weeks – a piece of legislation that contains evidence-based measures that can save lives here and reduce harm. I would urge all politicians to support this Bill so that it is adopted in the lifetime of this Government.

“Setting a Minimum Unit Price for alcohol is one of the Bill’s key measures. The conclusions of the European Court of Justice opinion issued this week permit national rules that prescribe a minimum retail price of alcohol provided that those rules are justified by the objectives of the protection of human health, and in particular the objective of combating alcohol abuse, and do not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

“We believe that Minimum Unit Pricing offers additional advantages and fewer disadvantages than the relatively blunt instruments of excise and taxation of alcohol. It is a measure that is targeted, particularly affecting the behaviour of young and harmful drinkers, and leaving the price of alcohol in restaurants, bars and clubs unchanged.

“Setting a Minimum Unit Price of €1 for alcohol would, according to the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group, reduce overall alcohol consumption in Ireland by 8.8%, with consumption among high risk drinkers falling by 15%. It would save reduce the number of deaths due to alcohol by 197 and trigger a 5,878 reduction in the numbers being admitted to hospital with alcohol-related issues” Prof Murray said.

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