The adult per capita consumption of alcohol in the Republic has doubled from seven litres in 1970 to 14.5 litres in 2001, an international expert has said.
Prof Griffith Edwards, founder of the National Addiction Centre at the University of London, said mortality rates for liver cirrhosis among Irish men of all ages had more than doubled, from 5.4 per 100,000 per year in 1957-1961, to 11.1 per 100,000 in 1997-2001.
This compares with countries such as France which have recorded a dramatic reduction in the mortality rates for liver cirrhosis, Prof Edwards told Trinity College Dublin's annual White Social Policy lecture.
He said alcohol taxes, graduated licensing for novice drivers and sobriety check points would help tackle the Republic's worsening alcohol-related problems.
Prof Edwards said research had proven that alcohol promotion increased the likelihood of heavier drinking and alcohol advertising predisposed minors to drinking before the legal age.
Advertising had been found to promote and reinforce perceptions of drinking as positive, glamorous and relatively risk-free, according to Prof Edwards.
"Because alcohol is no ordinary commodity, the public has a right to expect a more enlightened, evidence-based approach to alcohol policy," he said.
"The impact of education and persuasion programmes tends to be small at best. Drink-driving counter-measures consistently produce long-term reduction of between 5 and 30 per cent. Deterrence-based approaches such as random breath testing yield few arrests but substantial accident reductions."
Prof Edwards said alcohol-related death and disability accounted for 4 per cent of the "global burden of disease".