Ireland is “slowly” making progress at tackling binge drinking, Alcohol Health Action Ireland has claimed.
Today, the OECD released a study that found that alcohol consumptions in Ireland remains above average in comparison to other developed nations.
Out of 33 countries, Ireland ranked eighth with around a quarter of adults binge drinking at least once a month.
“We do drink heavily relative to other countries in the OECD,” Professor Frank Murray told The Hard Shoulder.
“Particularly, we binge drink, or what’s described as heavily episodic drinking.
“In other words, drinking more than six units, three pints or six glasses of wine, in a session.”
Professor Murray said there continues to be a “lot not to like about binge drinking” and there are a significant number of risk associated with it
“Getting involved in violence as either the perpetrator or the victim - including gender based violence and domestic violence - self harm and suicide,” he said.
Many people, he added, underestimate how big a problem binge drinking is because it is so normalised within wider society.
“That reflects how deeply unhealthy our attitude to alcohol is,” he said.
“We think that behaving like that is a normal or acceptable thing to do - it’s not.”
Societal change
Professor Murray said binge drinking is not an inevitable feature of Irish life and other countries have shown it is possible to change.
“Italy, 50 years ago, drank four times what we drank per capita,” he said.
“They’ve dramatically reduced that, so they drink far less than we do.
“They drink small amounts more frequently and they don’t tend to binge drink.
“That’s a very good recipe, I think we should follow the Italians.”
He added the Government had brought in a number of policies that should reduce binge drinking.
“Minimum unit pricing, we are putting warning and nutrition content on the labels and we’re introducing some restrictions around advertising and marketing,” he said.
“So, we’re making progress here in Ireland, slowly.”
If you think you have a problem with alcohol, you can contact the HSE’s confidential freephone helpline on 1800 459 459 from Monday to Friday between 9:30 am and 5:30 pm.
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Main image: Pint glasses. Photograph: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie
