Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too send my condolences to the family of Jennifer Poole, who was killed, and all who loved her. Again, we are talking about domestic violence against women and it honestly is really shocking.

I wish to talk about the findings published last week by the Health Research Board in its report entitled Alcohol consumption, alcohol-related harm and alcohol policy in Ireland. At a time when the health service is almost at breaking point due to the pandemic, it is interesting to establish the huge strains that problematic drinking puts on our resources. Alcohol is responsible for three deaths every day and for up to 40,000 alcohol-related hospital discharges every year. During this pandemic the stress and pressure on people is sometimes overwhelming and can lead to increased alcohol consumption. There has been a marked increase in reports of domestic abuse, as I highlighted earlier. A survey of violence against women in 28 European states, including Ireland, found that prevalence of physical and sexual violence by a current partner was significantly higher among partners of women who got drunk frequently.

Alcohol-related harm can also affect persons other than the drinker, especially family members, which is an area in which I am specifically interested. The stress and suffering experienced by family members, especially during this pandemic, has been exacerbated by the lockdowns. I am familiar with this from my own organisation, the RISE Foundation; which has a huge list of family members who are waiting to get into our services. An interesting figure is that the total estimated cost of alcohol's cost to others was €863 million and this does not include the costs that do not have monetary value, such as fear, pain, suffering and loss of quality of life.

Another interesting fact in this report is that the public has a very poor knowledge of the health conditions related to alcohol, including cancer. This lack of knowledge could be offset if the introduction of alcohol health warning labels, as provided for in the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018, was implemented. On that point, I received a text message this morning from Ms Paula Leonard from the national community action on alcohol network. She also highlighted that there are three groups they were particularly worried about. The first is young people, who need more effective age verification at point of sale and point of delivery. Second, delivery to intoxicated persons may pose a risk to themselves or others as it is impossible to gauge intoxication with phone or Internet sales. The third group is delivery drivers. This all concerns delivery of alcohol at the moment and off-licences that are delivering.

The health of the people could be significantly improved if policies were introduced to reduce per capita alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption can only be reduced if policies which increase the price of alcohol, restrict its availability and reduce its promotion and advertising are introduced. I know, from being a campaigner for the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018, that there was a lot of pressure exerted by vested interests to try to prevent the Bill becoming law. I now call on the Minister for Health to implement all the outstanding provisions of the Act as it would be of great benefit to people's health and would dramatically relieve pressure on our health service. My colleague Senator Seery Kearney will probably talk more about the delivery and what is happening around that.