Ireland In Love With Alcohol
August 6th, 2008 -- Posted in Irish Politics | 9 Comments »Most people my age often associate Ireland with alcohol and the Irish as having livers of Iron. I can attest to the latter as being quite true thinking back to a Christmas party at work where my fellow co-workers had consumed double the amount of beer I had and were feeling no effects at all. Through my work and following the news, I have discovered recently that there is a mini crisis brewing all around Ireland. This crisis refers to the mass closure of pubs around the country and even in Dublin because it is cheaper to purchase your alcohol in a store rather than at a pub.
For example, the cost of a pint these in Ireland today will set you back on average €4 which is $6 using the current exchange rate. You can buy a pint of beer in Lidl ( Kind of like Wal-mart) for €1:
So when you can get alcohol cheaply in a Wal-Mart like store, what is the point of driving to a pub? There is no point hence some people feel that Ireland is losing some of its charm because of these recent closures. At the same time there are others who welcome this trend because it is far safer to drink at home then drive a distance to a pub then probably drive back home drunk. Drinking is still a major social problem in Ireland with the population drinking on average 13.5 liters in 2003 compared to the USA’s 8.4. These figures are 5 years old but I have little reason to believe they have significantly deviated in 2008.
The government has tried to fix the alcohol problem with a range of public service messages while taxing alcohol higher than any other country in Europe in 2007. In 2007, the government also collected 2.2 billion euro from alcohol taxes yet this money had not been used productively to raise awareness of alcohol and its associated problems in Ireland. This lack of awareness has to led to a relatively steady increase of alcohol related hospital discharges:
Between 1995 and 2004 there were 139,962 alcohol-related hospital discharges. Males accounted for 75% (105,184) and women for 25% (34,778) of discharges. The number of discharges increased by 92% between 1995 and 2002. The number of alcohol-related discharges peaked in 2002, and had decreased slightly (by 2%) by 2004…
The Irish Government recently passed the Intoxicating Liquor Act of 2008 which was intended to prevent the misuse of alcohol in society however if you examine the various clauses in the bill, you will find them lacking any realistic means to accomplish this task. For example the closure of off-licenses (Grocery stores that can sell alcohol) at 10pm is very unlikely to affect alcohol consumption because most people would have purchased their alcohol for the evening much earlier or or will now do so under the new law. This new bill is another waste of time by the Irish Government and does little to address an age old issue in Ireland that needs to be fixed.
