Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Beverage Exports: Discussion with Drinks Industry Group of Ireland

1:55 pm

Mr. Kieran Tobin:

I will give some top-line figures before passing to Mr. Foley, who can flesh them out. Our per capita consumption has decreased by approximately 20% since 2001, which was the peak of our per capita consumption of alcohol. At that stage, per adult consumption was 14.4 litres, and that is now down to approximately 11.7 litres. That is a decline of approximately 20%. If a reduction in per capita consumption would solve our problems, we would be on that road. The industry would argue that per adult consumption is not the issue but rather the misuse of our products. That is against the total market or per adult consumption.