Even as we focus on addiction, we engage in denial

Paddy has a genius for avoidance when it comes to tackling our affinity for alcohol, writes Declan Lynch

It seems that our old friend the drink is still getting a free pass. Gerry Ryan had apparently been drinking and using cocaine on the day he died, yet in all the talk which ensued, there was hardly a mention of the drink.

Even as we appeared to be talking about the realities of addiction, we were somehow engaging in a deeper denial. Or maybe there is some realm beyond denial in which we actually don't regard alcohol as a mood-altering substance at all. We just don't see it in those terms. We don't see it at all.

Comments

#1. Posted by Tim Bingham on December 19, 2010

The Equality Act 1998 & 2004 declares that unfavourable treatment on the grounds of disability is discriminatory. Substance abuse is qualified as a disability. Therefore, under this act employers are obliged to provide reasonable accommodation for an employee or potential employee with a disability such that it does not exceed a nominal cost. This must be considered when deciding how an employee with a substance abuse issue is going to be managed.
S16 of the 1998 Equality Act provides that an employer shall do �all that is reasonable to accommodate the needs of a person who has a disability by providing special treatment or facilities and that a refusal or failure to provide special treatment or facilities shall not be deemed reasonable unless such provision would give rise to a cost, other than a nominal cost to the employer�.
This point was reinforced in March 2006 when the Labour Court upheld the principle that alcoholism is a disability under the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2004. The decision in A Government Department v An Employee, Determination No. EDA062 crystallises the principle that alcoholics cannot be treated less favourably at work. The Court held that alcoholism is a disability within the meaning of the Employment Equality Act…... I question where RTE stand on Health & safety regulations