Listening to ‘Spirit Moves’ one Sunday on RTE Radio 1, made me aware of some of the issues surrounding alcohol addiction in this country.

There was a panel of four to discuss the problem: Dr. Shane Butler; Dr. Conor Farren; Pat Coyle and Jack Houlihan. Broadly, there seemed to be two main factors: Individual and societal susceptibility to drinking alcohol, and common availability of alcohol and the wealth to buy it. There is help for people out there, counselling and residential care, but the panel stressed, that there may be a need for larger governmental measures.

Dr. Shane Butler said “I think it is very interesting to speculate about why the Irish drink– genetic predisposition, or some psychological gap or chasm that makes us all drink too much. We are not unique. Northern Europeans tend to drink more and in more dangerous patterns.”
Dr. Conor Farren said “Clearly we have more money, and that’s right across the classes in the social stratum. For the first time, those innate tendencies have been allowed to come to the fore. Young people have the disposable income. They spend money on alcohol, because it’s now become so easy and so fashionable.

“There has been an explosion in alcohol abuse over the last 15 years. And in parallel with the good changes in society, have been these parallel, somewhat hidden, but equally profound changes in the addiction profile.There has been active promotion of alcohol during this time.”
He is talking about the hundreds of cases of beer on special offer that confront you at the entrance to the supermarket. Also, bar extensions until 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning in rugby and GAA clubs, and sponsorship of major sporting events, actively encouraging young people to drink.

The only warning campaigns that exist are actually sponsored by the drinks industry (‘Don’t see a good night wasted’– Diageo), so you can understand how ambivalent the message is.
One listener rang in, pointing out that the problem with the people in this country is that we think it’s a great laugh. And if someone doesn’t want to drink, we make them feel like a pariah.

“They binge drink par excellence in this country. A binge drink is taken as between 4-5 standard drinks. But if you tell a bunch of drinkers that, they fall around the place laughing. They define a binge drink as between 15 to 20 drinks.”

In the last 12 years, major cities in Britain and Ireland decided that they needed to create a night-time economy. In order to do that, they extended the number of licences that were available. Places like Manchester and Dublin have become drinking capitals of Europe.

By the time the affected person shows up for help, their alcoholism can be very advanced and can manifest with mental conditions, most commonly depression. Which came first, is lost in obscurity but if both problems exist, both need treatment. That leads to one of the criticisms of residential treatment, that there is too much recourse to medication.

Since the 2001 Mental Health Act, addiction is one of the categories where it is no longer possible to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital involuntarily. They estimate that €3 billion a year is the economic cost to Irish society.

The Swedish recognised a similar problem over 10 years ago and took action. The Irish problem is seen as being far worse. Dr. Shane Butler continues: “If we need to tackle it, I don’t think information is of any value at all. There have been many strategies and reports over the last 10 years, and it’s almost as if no-one takes a blind bit of notice. We need strong public policy, but these are policies that are quite unpopular.”

In Sweden, they introduced taxation, government off-licenc s, and they did not congregate pubs in a type of Temple Bar area. In Ireland, where we drink so enthusiastically and so liberally, this would be interpreted as the creation of a nanny state. Also, what we’re up against is a government which would appear to be in collusion with big business, the drinks industry.