1084. Deputy Shane Moynihan asked the Minister for Health if proposed mandatory health warning labels on alcohol products will be provided in both Irish and English as is this case with tobacco product warnings which were made bilingual in 2008. [70347/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, Minister for Health: The Regulations governing health labelling under the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 were finalised and signed by the Minister for Health in July 2023. This followed assessment of those draft Regulations at EU and WTO level. They will come into operation 3 September 2028.

Section 12 of the Act, under which the Regulations were made, provides that the relevant health information on labels of alcohol products is required in the English language only. This was the determination of the Houses of the Oireachtas following debate in which consideration was given to the proportionality of introducing a requirement for the first time which would require twelve additional pieces of information on the labels of alcohol products, which would be the case if the information was required in both languages.

Under the legislation, notices to be displayed in both on-licensed and off-licensed premises and the notices required on websites which sell alcohol products, must be in the Irish language as well as in the English language to ensure that the relevant information is available in the Irish language to all consumers.

The tobacco health warnings to which the Deputy refers are a requirement of an EU Directive and it is in that context that those warnings were required to be in both languages.