Alcohol is by far the most used psychoactive substance in the workforce, with people having harmful consumption patterns that increase their risk of social, legal, medical, occupational, domestic and economic problems. [1] Alcohol use is an important issue in the workplace since “it can lead to an increase in accidents, injuries, absenteeism, and inappropriate behaviour by reducing a worker’s psycho-physical integrity, and significantly affecting the health and safety of third parties”.[2]

Alcohol consumption in Ireland is still too high, with a modest government target for a reduction in consumption missed five years ago. In 2013 the government set a modest target for the year 2020 to reduce alcohol consumption to 9.1 litres of pure alcohol per capita, however, the target was missed, and consumption levels are still around 5% above that modest target. Resultantly, more than half of Irish drinkers are classified as hazardous drinkers.[3] Within that cohort of hazardous drinkers, there are 578,000 people with an alcohol use disorder (AUD), of which 90,000 are at a severe level. [4]

As has been well documented, this has a significant impact on public health and the health service, on crime and the criminal justice system, and on road traffic collisions. However, another area which is directly and indirectly affected by alcohol but which has received far too little attention is the workplace. It is important to highlight that the International Labour Organization (ILO) stated that alcohol can have a negative impact on performance in the workplace.[5] The impact of alcohol on the workplace is multifaceted, it affects the individual in terms of mortality and morbidity, productivity, presenteeism, and absenteeism, it affects colleagues in terms of workload, and it affects employers in terms of businesses losses and competitiveness.

This paper seeks to use national and international evidence to set out the impact of alcohol in the workplace in Ireland, the scale of its impact on workers, on employers, and on the economy. It will also outline the necessary solutions needed to reduce the societal and economic harms of alcohol.