Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) was established in 2003 and is the national independent advocate for reducing alcohol harm. We campaign for the burden of alcohol harm to be lifted from the individual, community and State, and have a strong track record in campaigning, advocacy, research and information provision. Our work involves providing information on alcohol-related issues, creating awareness of alcohol-related harm and offering policy solutions with the potential to reduce that harm, with a particular emphasis on the implementation of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018. Our overarching goal is to achieve a reduction in consumption of alcohol and the consequent health and social harms which alcohol causes in society.

Global alcohol giants are making enormous profits from their sales in Ireland while there is a lack of government urgency to address the nearly 1500 deaths annually from Ireland’s cheapest and most widely available drug.

In recent weeks there has rightly been huge concern expressed about the rise in deaths on Ireland’s roads. There has been focussed activity across a number of government departments taking a public health approach to reducing the level of crashes. A similar concerted approach is needed to reduce the scale of devastation caused by alcohol.

In its pre-budget submission, AAI sets out the harm that alcohol –  Ireland’s cheapest and most widely available drug – causes and makes a number of recommendations to offset that harm. Alcohol Action Ireland’s pre-budget submission calls for:

• development of a ‘polluter pays’ model for alcohol taxation
• establishment of an Office for Alcohol Harm Reduction
• increased funding for services for all impacted by alcohol harm...