The intoxicating Liquor Act is too young to be blamed for hangovers yet, but one headache it won't anaesthetise is the problem of under-age drinking. Irish children are starting to drink as young as nine years of age, and many reportedly have their first alcoholic drink by 14. The problem is becoming as widespread for girls as for boys; despite good intentions, society is increasingly looking the other way.
The reasons for doing so are complex. We like to drink and we like pubs. Yet while our ire now focuses on nicotine abuse and illegal drug abuse, we have ignored alcohol abuse. Not alone is this a pub culture, it is an economy predicated on that assumption. We work hard, so we deserve to play hard - and thousands of people come to play with us. As long as we can find a taxi home, we're behaving responsibly.
You can't blame the drink for what it does to you or to others, whether you're a wine connoisseur or a pint-drinker. Drink is neutral. There is a collective challenge, however, when rates of alcohol addiction come into play. We may discuss the Irish disease less, but it hasn't gone away, you know.
Of every 10 Irish people who start drinking, at least two are at serious risk of becoming an alcoholic. And while nicotine may kill the body, alcohol works like acid on the soul and the community.
Alcohol abuse ruins lives and families to the point where the presence of one alcoholic member can damage family culture over generations.
WHAT makes alcohol arguably more of a problem than ever is how effective marketing and promotion has enabled it seep through to many areas of human activity. The dreams advertisers evoke make alcohol an apparently indispensable part of being adult.
Successful branding creates powerful links between alcohol and sport, alcohol and leisure, alcohol and romance. Advertisers and marketing experts have done their job brilliantly, but the degree of that seepage may have reached a serious critical mass.
The image of alcohol is intimately associated with instant relaxation, enhanced sociability and better personal relationships. Market branding means that your choice of drink now identifies you as distinctively as do your clothes, shoes or hairstyle.
A double-helix effect is starting to operate to the point where alcohol becomes a necessary piece of equipment, as fundamental to various activities and processes as an Orangeman's bowler hat.
The norm is watching the European Cup with a few cans tucked away; the obvious conclusion any under-age person will draw is that being a good fan means being a fairly good drinker too.
It is not necessarily that under-age people want access to drink, but rather access to the lifestyle it implies. That is the context within which demand is generated, yet the new Act focuses its campaign against under-age drinking exclusively, and sometimes superficially, on the area of supply.
Some provisions are timely: it removes the defence of reasonable belief which had allowed defendants to simply plead they looked 18 to me, guv. Premises can be closed if licensees are convicted to supplying alcohol to minors - but only temporarily. Regulations supporting other provisions have not yet been introduced. Voluntary identity cards will be introduced, but given the ease with which IDs can be faked, and the street credibility fake IDs hold in some circles, this measure is hardly targeted at the fundamental problem.
Yet the Act also asserts that the supply or sale of alcohol to under-age people is criminally irresponsible. Why? The term is not defined. The reality of deregulated markets makes revenue from alcohol and its advertising a very attractive contributor to GNP.
As under-35s constitute the biggest-spending leisure market, you can argue that getting them young by holding up tantalising images of what happens when you add alcohol to your lifestyle makes good commercial sense.
These limited provisions will reduce some of the exploitation of under-age people, but that is only part of the problem. It is unrealistic to imagine that it will substantially reduce underage drinking.
Demand always creates suppliers. As there is an absence of interesting facilities where the under-18s can meet and chat and test their maturity, pub culture is bound to be as attractive to many of them as it is for us, arguably more so sometimes, given the lure of the forbidden.
On the surface, keeping the age of alcoholic consent at 18 seems to make good sense. The sooner you start drinking, the more likely you are to develop alcohol-related problems. Yet it ignores reality.
There is an argument for having a transitional period where minors are allowed consume alcohol within strict limits. That would do no more than recognise what is already happening, and make it easier to avoid the real abuses that do occur.
You can marry and become a parent before the age of 18. If you are considered old enough to carry those responsibilities, it is inconsistent that you're not considered sufficiently responsible to manage alcohol consumption at the same time.
If politicians are serious about tackling under-age drinking, more than a grandiose piece of rhetoric is required. Without a considered strategy to manage demand, solutions tackling sale and supply only are bound to fail. That means restricting the marketing and advertising of alcohol in a range of situations. A system that takes revenue voraciously from alcohol, and then purses its lips at the consequences, is bound to end up flat as a very stale old pint.
mruane@irish-times.ie