A minimum price for alcohol will be formally approved next week.

The compromise will bring to an end a long running dispute between the Department of Health and Department of Transport – which is responsible for sport. It is understood that plans to ban alcohol sponsorship of sports events will be dropped.

Government sources say a compromise has been reached which will see legal rules governing the way in which alcohol can be marketed towards younger audiences. While there are rules already in place regarding these issues, they are currently a code of conduct and they will now become law.

There is no figure yet decided on as the minimum price, although €1 per unit has been discussed.

A cabinet subcommittee is due to meet next week to approve the measures, and a minimum price could be in place by the summer.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar says reducing alcohol consumption is one of a number of ways to improve the nation's health:

“The overwhelming long-term priority has to be a healthy Ireland (including) reducing the amount of alcohol we consume to an average for the western world,” he said.

Mr Vardakar said the continuing aim needs to be a focus on improving people’s health by “continuing to reduce the amount of people smoking, get people exercising more and keeping their weight under control.

“All of those things cause cardiovascular diseases, they cause diabetes, they cause cancer,” Mr Varadkar added.