In Ireland our attitude towards alcohol is one often filled with ambivalence. It is a subject that we have neglected with a great cost to our citizens. It’s time for change. We must change how we consider its impact on our society. We must change our attitudes and behaviours towards alcohol. We must change by reducing the quantities of alcohol we consume on average, Europeans are the highest consumers of alcohol in the world. The Irish are among the highest consumers of alcohol in Europe. We consume on average 11.9 litres of pure alcohol per capita per annum. In a recent study on the consumption of alcohol in Ireland in 2013, 63.9% of males and 51.4% of females begin their relationship with alcohol before the age of 18. Our binge drinking patterns are also among the highest in Europe with 20.1% partaking in the practice once a week. Using the World Health Organisation’s classification, 54.3% of people living in Ireland are harmful drinkers, i.e. there are approximately 1.4 million people in Ireland consuming alcohol at harmful levels. These are statistics that we cannot be proud of. These are the league tables that we do not want to feature prominently on.

But we might be turning a corner. The Public Health (Alcohol) Bill outlines some positive steps to tackle the issue for the first time in a meaningful way. It might be the first step in introducing minimum unit pricing which we, as an Alcohol Strategy Group for Cork and Kerry, will fully support. But Ireland needs to go further and strengthen her resolve to tackle the availability and marketing of alcohol in a meaningful way too. Finally we must include alcohol as part of our response to substance misuse and when our National Drugs Strategy runs out at the end of 2016 we must include alcohol in a new National Substance Misuse Strategy from the start of 2017.

Foreword p.1
1. Introduction p.2
2. Alcohol p.3
3. Critical variables in problematic alcohol consumption p.7
4. The World Health Organisation p.11
5. Alcohol and the European Union p.12
6. Ireland and alcohol p.18
7. Alcohol’s harm to others p.23
8. Cork and Kerry (Research Overview) p.24
9. The young scientist alcohol study p.25
10. Overview: Myth, Mirth and Merriment p.27
11. Conclusions p.28
Footnotes p.30

Section 2: Alcohol Strategy Group Cork and Kerry
• Local alcohol action plan
• Vision statement: p.34
• Mission statement: p.34
• Pillars p.35