Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, will be aware the ready availability of cheap alcohol is a serious problem in Ireland that requires urgent attention. There are 2.48 million people in Ireland who drink alcohol, 54% of whom drink harmfully and excessively according to the Health Research Board survey in 2014. In other words, 1.24 million people drink harmfully and excessively. Three people die every day due to alcohol and 2,000 hospital beds are occupied every night by people with alcohol-related illnesses. In 2010, the average Irish consumer drank 11.9 litres of pure alcohol, which is equivalent to 428 pints of lager, 125 bottles of wine or 45 bottles of vodka. I could continue with the worrying statistics but I believe the Minister gets the picture.

Moreover, due to low supermarket prices and aggressive price promotions, consumers can purchase large amounts of alcohol at ridiculously low prices. However, hundreds of deaths could be avoided each year with a minimum price for alcohol units. I urge the Minister to implement swiftly the public health (alcohol) Bill and to ensure it firmly includes a fair and feasible solution through minimum unit pricing. Unless minimum unit pricing is introduced, we will allow the serious link between cheap alcohol and anti-social behaviour to only grow worse. Our streets often are dangerous late on weekend nights because of marauding and demented youths fuelled up on cheap alcohol, which more than likely has been consumed in their own homes or the homes of their friends. As matters stand, Irish teenagers are more likely to be heavy drinkers than teenagers in any other European Union country. We are failing young people by not responding to the normalisation of alcohol misuse through the cheap and widespread availability of alcohol. Moreover, parents must wise up and take on their responsibilities as primary carers for their children and teenagers. Today, the Irish Heart Foundation launched a campaign called "Can you stay On The Dry in January?". To put it bluntly, this campaign is fighting to keep more hearts beating by asking the Irish public not to drink for one month and to avoid the temptation of cheap and readily available alcohol. When I cite the statistics in respect of binge drinkers, I do not refer to the stereotypical alcoholic but to the everyday person who does not even realise the volume of alcohol he or she drinks or the frequency at which he or she drinks. We almost boast about our identity as a nation of heavy drinkers and this is extremely worrying. Research has shown that Irish women drink significantly more than their European counterparts. Most women do not even realise that drinking three to six glasses of wine a day can increase their risk of breast cancer by 41%. There is an urgent need for a major sea-change and in how we view our national relationship with alcohol. I believe that minimum unit pricing will help discourage and deter people from buying cheap alcohol.

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