Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Deputy raising this very important matter. I also appreciate that the Deputy supports the broad thrust of the policy and its underpinning rationale. We are seven months away from the introduction of minimum unit pricing, which will happen next January, and I appeal to the Northern Ireland Executive, all political parties in the North and anyone with influence on those parties to support a measure like this in Northern Ireland in order that we can have complete alignment.

There have been discussions between the two Departments of Health and the indications from the Northern Ireland Executive were that it was not going to consider this until 2023, if at all. There has been all-party agreement on this legislation in this House for quite some time, going back to 2018 and to 2013 and the reasons are obvious. The view is that the below-cost selling of alcohol is harming children and young people in particular. Some of the figures are quite horrendous. For example, Ireland had the third highest level in the world of adolescent binge drinking, at 61% for females and 58.8% for males, according to data from the global study on progress in adolescent health and well-being published in The Lancetin March 2019. Teenagers and children binge drinking bring significant issues for us as a society.

There is also an impact on hospitalisation and mortality figures. In 2012, the cost of alcohol-related discharges from hospital was €1.5 billion and the estimated cost of alcohol-related absenteeism from work was €41 million in 2013. In 2015, one in seven workers suffered work-related problems due to others drinking, including one in 20 workers reporting having to work extra hours due to co-workers drinking, with an estimated cost of €46 million.

There are also wider concerns related to hospitalisations and it is now estimated the number of hospitalisations wholly attributed to alcohol rose by 94% between 1995 and 2018 from 9,420 to 18,348. These figures are from the Department of Health and provided from clinical settings. From 2008 to 2017 there were 10,000 alcohol-related deaths and the Health Research Board reckons these data are likely to represent an underestimate of alcohol-related mortality in Ireland. The National Cancer Registry estimates that at current consumption levels, by 2035 male cancer cases attributable to alcohol will increase by 37% and female cancer cases will increase by 110%. Hence, the view of the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, that we must move on this.

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