Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), the national independent advocate to reduce alcohol harm, notes with dismay and concern recent comments by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe that Ireland’s hard-won world leading health information labelling of alcohol products needs to be “examined again”, and calls on Taoiseach Micheál Martin to defend public health over vested interests by explicitly ruling this out.

From an economics perspective linking global trading concerns brought on by Trump’s tariffs to the Irish health issue of labelling makes no sense given labelling applies only to alcohol products sold in Ireland and has absolutely no impact on exports. However, it comes as IBEC, the business lobbying organisation, is continuing its campaign against these regulation by pressing government to postpone the introduction of alcohol health information labelling due to come into effect in May 2026 using concerns about the impact of tariffs on alcohol exports to the US...