The Irish government has delayed the introduction of mandatory health labelling for alcohol, which was originally scheduled for next year, until 2028. Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) called the move ‘a failure of leadership and democracy’.
Mandatory labelling carrying health warnings about the risk of liver disease, alcohol-related cancers and drinking while pregnant formed a key part of the country’s Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 (PHAA), and was praised by the WHO and other health bodies. The section of the act covering pre-watershed bans on alcohol advertising came into force earlier this year (https://www.drinkanddrugsnews.com/irelands-ban-on-pre-watershed-alcohol-advertising-comes-into-force/), with the labelling regulations signed into law in 2023 and due to be introduced next May after a three-year lead-in period.
However, AAI CEO Sheila Gilheany told DDN earlier this year that there had been an ‘ongoing campaign disparaging the need for labelling’ from the drinks industry (https://www.drinkanddrugsnews.com/caught-in-the-act/campaign), and in April AAI was one of 75 health organisations to sign an open letter urging the government to ensure the introduction of the regulations was not ‘derailed or delayed’ by industry lobbying (https://www.drinkanddrugsnews.com/campaigners-urge-irish-government-to-make-sure-mandatory-alcohol-health-labelling-goes-ahead/).
Alcohol industry trade body Drinks Ireland had been urging the government to reconsider the labelling regulations in light of threatened US trade tariffs. ‘Our members are currently contending with major trade uncertainty, new tariffs on products entering our most important export market, the US, and threats of further tariff escalation,’ it said. ‘In these uncertain times, companies must be as competitive as possible to survive in international markets.’
AAI, which has accused the industry of using ‘every dirty trick in the playbook to muddy the waters’ around labelling, states that ‘alcohol labels tell people the facts – that alcohol causes liver disease and cancer’. Ireland also has third highest level of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) in the world, it states, affecting up to 7.4 per cent of the population.
‘To say that this delay is a blow for public health in Ireland is an understatement,’ Gilheany said. ‘It is a failure of leadership and of democracy. It’s not just that Irish people are being denied their right to information regarding some of the facts about alcohol so that they can make informed decisions. It’s not just that the government is allowing its own groundbreaking legislation to be undermined by the very industry it is designed to regulate. This delay will have real-life consequences that will be felt by ordinary Irish people every day.’
The implementation of the PHAA so far had been slow and lacking in strategic planning, she continued, which had ‘played right into the alcohol industry’s hands’ and allowed ‘misinformation to flourish’. Other sections of the PHAA yet to be implemented, such as those restricting the content of alcohol ads, were also being ‘ferociously resisted’ by the drinks industry, she added. ‘Ireland’s well deserved international public health reputation has undoubtedly been tarnished by these actions, where clearly the profits of an already immensely wealthy industry were deemed more important than the lives of babies, women and men right across Ireland.’