Parental problem alcohol use (PPAU) is a well-established Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) with profound and enduring consequences for the physical and mental health of children affected – in childhood and into adulthood. Ireland’s high levels of alcohol consumption is closely associated with increased levels of harm as decades of evidence demonstrates that greater consumption leads to greater harm and reduced consumption leads to reduced harm.

At least 1 in 6 young people in Ireland are currently affected by alcohol-related harm in the home – equating to more than 200,000 children living in a home blighted by PPAU. Research further indicates that 1 in 4 Irish people may have grown up in the presence of problematic alcohol use. Including partners of those drinking at problematic levels, this suggests that it is likely more than 1.5 million people across the state are, or have been, affected by alcohol harm in the home.

The outworking of this is both immediate and lasting harm as PPAU is strongly linked to neglect, abuse, mental and physical health difficulties, family breakdown, and alcohol fuelled violence. Yet children’s voices remain largely unheard due to the denial and secrecy which accompanies PPAU.

The only way to tackle PPAU and its harms to children is to identify it, talk about it, offer services and support to those affected – especially children – and to limit its frequency by reducing alcohol consumption at a population level. This, however, will take a coordinated, whole-of-government response, which places the reduction of alcohol consumption and its harms to children at the heart of government policy.