A short report presenting analysis of trends over time in publicly available data on alcohol sales, inflation for alcoholic products, rates of alcohol duty, before and after adjusting for inflation, and levels of alcohol affordability, in the Republic of Ireland.

Alcohol sales: Revenue publish quarterly data on alcohol cleared for sale (i.e. alcoholic products on which the duty has been paid by the producer and which can therefore be sold domestically)2, with the latest figures representing the first quarter of 2024. This data reflects the basis of taxation for each product, reporting volumes of pure alcohol for beer and cider, but volumes of product for cider and wine. Assuming an average alcoholic strength of 4% for cider and 12.5% for wine allows the estimation of overall trends in the volume of alcohol sold as each beverage type (assuming that the volume of alcohol cleared for sale is comparable to the volume of alcohol that is actually sold). The quarterly data is highly seasonal, with significantly less alcohol cleared for sale in the first three months of each year. In order to compare trends it is therefore clearest to look at rolling 12-month averages. This shows that the total volume of alcohol sold in Ireland has remained fairly stable at around 40 million litres per year for the last 15 years. There is some evidence of a dip in sales during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, but this has subsequently rebounded...