413. Deputy Sinéad Gibney asked the Minister for Health in light of the deferral of alcohol labelling to 2028, the additional funding that has been allocated to raising awareness and educate the public about the risk of prenatal alcohol exposure, specifically at this time of year, when alcohol consumption is known to increase; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [73073/25]

Minister of State at the Department of Health: The HSE Alcohol Programme is part of HSE Health and Wellbeing under Public Health. It was created as a policy priority programme under Healthy Ireland, and aims to prevent and reduce alcohol use and its related harms in Ireland. On the team, there is a Programme Lead who also oversees the HSE Mental Health and Wellbeing Programme and one full-time project manager.

In order to increase capacity, a second project manager has recently been assigned an Alcohol Programme brief on a part-time basis. There is ongoing development of the HSE’s alcohol public communications website and campaign ‘Ask About Alcohol’. A 3-year review of all website content is almost completed. Following this review, minor and major factual updates have been made, as well as consolidation of content (e.g. navigating services) and the development of new content e.g. sober curious.

The current campaign focus is on cancer, in partnership with National Cancer Control Programme, with new creative assets being promoted across social media platforms. There is also new creative content currently in development on alcohol and pregnancy, which is undergoing testing with target groups and people with lived experience of prenatal alcohol exposure. This new creative will be a significant focus in 2026, in addition to planned developments in relation to alcohol and parents, and alcohol and the brain.The HSE Alcohol Programme updates and develops public and patient leaflets and posters in multiple languages on an ongoing basis.

The team is currently working on the development of new resources for healthcare and community workers to support conversations about alcohol in collaboration with HSE SPARK Innovation; these include a new alcohol standard drink cup, a standard drink wheel, and cards on standard drinks. A new resource pack for healthcare professionals on the prevention of prenatal alcohol exposure is also almost completed, and will be disseminated throughout 2026.