Has our national lust for alcohol been cured?

Nothing provokes such a bout of national self-righteous self-flagellation than the relationship between Irish people and alcohol. Every Christmas, St Patrick’s Day and Arthur’s Day, the cacophony of condemnation peaks, often accompanied by earnest debates giving the perception that the problem is worse than ever and that nothing short of prohibition will cure the national lust for drink.

The Government is under constant pressure to introduce a minimum price per unit of alcohol and to ban alcohol sponsorship of sporting events.

Last week, the World Health Organisation, which lists Ireland as second only to Austria in terms of binge-drinking, provoked another round of the well-rehearsed arguments on both sides of the alcohol divide between those with a vested interest in tackling the problem head-on and those who want things to stay the way they are.

The WHO’s findings that some 40 per cent of Irish adults engaged in binge drinking over the previous month comes as no surprise. Many Irish adults would not even regard drinking the equivalent of three pints of beer or six small glasses of wine in one setting as binge-drinking, but that is the WHO’s definition.

It would seem that we are completely incorrigible when it comes to drink, but this perception is at odds with the reality. According to recent figures, provided by the Revenue Commissioners based on excise duty and compared with the population, as estimated by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) every April, the reduction in alcohol consumption per head of population since 2001 is quite startling.

In 2001, alcohol consumption in Ireland peaked at 14.44 litres of pure alcohol per person per year. In 2012 annual consumption levels were down to 11.681 litres of pure alcohol per person.

Last year there was quite a noteworthy one-year fall of 7.7 per cent to 10.73 litres of pure alcohol per person per year.

In 2001 the average Irish adult drank the equivalent of 543 pints of beer or 152 bottles of wine a year; last year the equivalent figures were 377 pints of beer or 113 bottles of wine.

Alcohol consumption is down by 25 per cent from its peak and is at levels last seen in the mid-1990s before the Celtic Tiger took hold.

Last year beer consumption was down by 6.2 per cent; wine, to which an extra €1 a bottle in excise was added in that year’s budget, was down by 8.9 per cent; and spirits were down by 11.9 per cent.

Many theories have been advanced to explain this fall.

The most obvious is the severe reduction in disposable income as a result of the recession. However, consumption levels were declining even before the recession took hold. Last year’s notable fall comes against the background of an economy on the rise. In theory, a rise in employment and a decline in unemployment should lead to increases in alcohol consumption levels, but the opposite has been the case.

The number of people coming to Ireland since 2004 has also been cited as a factor. Many come from countries where levels of alcohol consumption are lower than in Ireland, although Poland has higher average levels of consumption than Ireland.

Ireland’s peculiar demographics may also be a factor. The baby-boom generation, born between the late 1960s and 1980, are entering middle age, when consumption tends to reduce.

Monitoring statistics
The statistics have been monitored for many years on behalf of the drinks industry by Dr Anthony Foley, a lecturer in the business school at Dublin City University, who says the figures are irrefutable because they are produced by the Revenue Commissioners and not by the drinks industry.

Foley attributes the decline to a number of factors. Alcohol consumption is falling in many countries, he says, as the trend towards healthier lifestyles takes hold.

Economic factors are also important. People have less money and many of those who drink the most, specifically males between the ages of 20 and 30, have emigrated.

“The two primary influences are the changing demographic pattern – people drink less as they get older – and a general health consciousness.

“We’d still be reasonably high consumers by continental standards but we are [drinking] a lot less than we were.”

Does this mean that the Irish population in general has fallen out of love with alcohol?

He doesn’t think so, but he believes the continuing prevalence of binge-drinking makes the problem look worse than it is.

“We regard France as the sophisticated drinkers of Europe, but they drink more than we do, at 12.6 litres per person compared with 10.73 litres; they just drink differently. They tend not to binge like we do.”

Welcoming the fall
Kathryn D'Arcy, the director of the Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland, welcomed the fall in consumption.

This might seem strange coming from a representative of the industry, given the manner in which the pub trade, in particular, has suffered in recent years. However, she says, “It shows that Ireland is moving towards the European norm. We would much rather have a sustained market than the sharp rises and falls that we have seen.

“It makes far more sense for people to drink moderately like they do in France or Portugal. Binge-drinking damages our brands.”

Suzanne Costello, chief executive of Alcohol Action Ireland, says the fall has to be seen in the context of the extreme peak in 2001.

“Consumption is very important as a measure, but it is not the only thing to take into consideration.What has remained consistent is that there is still a harmful pattern of drinking and we remain in a position where we have a lot of young people binge-drinking.

“We are not looking for people to stop drinking. We want to get to a point where people understand what low-risk drinking is.”

Evelyn Jones, chairwoman of the National Off Licence Association, believes exercise and increases in excise duty are behind the decline.

“I notice a lot of people going out cycling at weekends. You can’t do a 50km cycle on a Sunday morning if you have been out drinking the night before.”

She believes much of the criticism that is heaped on Irish society in general is heeded not by binge-drinkers and problem drinkers, but by moderate drinkers.

“They assume that even having a glass of wine is bad. The moderate drinker has been conditioned to think that they shouldn’t be drinking at all.”