Imagine a world without alcohol sponsorship of sport and without drinks ads on TV. You’re imagining France, the country with a binge drinking rate one sixth that of Ireland. It’s a country where there is a genuinely sensible and mature approach to alcohol – and it’s a country, like Ireland, with a mix of statutory and non-statutory regulations for the alcohol industry.

To be certain, people drink in France – there is alcoholism there, there are serious issues for public health in France, just like in other societies where alcohol is available – but in France, the trend is downward and binge drinking isn’t, in general, a group activity where getting drunk is the objective.

The drinks industry is ruthlessly efficient and deeply rational – like any multi-billion euro industry, it knows how to get people to drink more, how to grow a market and how to cultivate the next generation of drinkers, to put them on the value addition conveyor belt.