Sir, – We find the recent letter from Dr Sean Barrett profoundly disappointing (Letters, August 21st).
Minimum unit pricing serves to make the cheapest alcohol less affordable, reducing excessive alcohol consumption, and the associated harm.
It forms a central part of the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill, which was enacted in Ireland in October 2018, despite repeated challenges, and has since been hampered by a stream of obstacles preventing its implementation.
Both Scotland and Wales have introduced minimum unit pricing, with almost immediate positive health benefits, such as a reduction in hospital admissions for alcohol-related liver disease
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In Ireland, admissions for alcohol-related liver disease increased by more than 200 per cent between 1995-2013, while mortality from liver disease has increased 400 per cent over the past 40 years, driven chiefly by the effects of alcohol related harm.
The cost of alcohol-related hospital admissions per year is estimated at €1.5 billion a year in Ireland. Minimum unit pricing represents the single most powerful method of addressing this crisis.
In contrast, Dr Barrett commends England on its failure to introduce minimum unit pricing, and raises concerns regarding extra revenues that it will generate for the alcohol industry. In Scotland, minimum unit pricing appears to have had little effect on the alcohol industry, with some benefits to small retailers who were unable to match the cheap supermarket prices, so if anything levelling the playing field.
Minimum unit pricing will save lives as well as revenue for the health service. – Yours, etc,
Prof JOHN RYAN,
Consultant Hepatologist,
Beaumont Hospital, Dublin;
Prof STEPHEN STEWART,
Consultant Hepatologist,
Mater Misericordiae
University Hospital, Dublin;
Prof DIARMAID
HOULIHAN,
Consultant Hepatologist,
St Vincent’s University
Hospital,
Dublin 4.