PINION: When it comes to laws curbing drink-related problems, the Coalition like earlier governments frets about upsetting the drinks industry, writes Brian O'Connell.
SINCE THE early noughties, successive Irish governments have made noises in relation to tackling our ongoing and dysfunctional relationship with alcohol. And each occasion government has bottled it at the behest of the drinks industry, vintners or related lobby groups.
Those who have contributed to the debate on our engagement with alcohol did feel a sense of hope and optimism with the manner in which Minister of State at the Department of Health Róisín Shortall took to her brief, pushing the idea of banning below-cost selling of alcohol as well as highlighting lax parental attitudes to underage drinking in the home.
Shortall, in an interview in this newspaper in January, said: “We have an unhealthy relationship with drink and it is clearly a cultural issue.”
For me, that sense of hope and optimism turned to exasperation last week when Tánaiste and Labour leader Eamon Gilmore, launched a Euro 2012 Survival Guide which was developed by the drinks industry, through the organisation Meas (Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Society) and Drinkaware.ie.
Source: Brian O'Connell, Irish Times, 14/05/12
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