New rule in Ireland increases prices for alcohol

Ireland’s government imposed a minimum unit price on alcoholic beverages Tuesday, one of a handful of nations to introduce such a rule as part of a raft of public health measures intended to curb binge drinking and reduce alcohol-related health issues.

The rule means stores, restaurants and pubs must now sell drinks containing alcohol for no less than about 10 cents per gram. Officials said the measure was aimed at making cheaper, stronger alcoholic products less readily available, particularly for young people and heavy drinkers.

“This measure is designed to reduce serious illness and death from alcohol consumption and to reduce the pressure on our health services from alcohol-related conditions,” said Stephen Donnelly, the nation’s minister for public health.

The rules require a price of 1 euro, or $1.13, per standard drink. That means that a bottle of wine containing 12.5% alcohol, equivalent to about 7.4 standard drinks, for example, cannot be sold for less than 7.40 euros, about $8.35.

Advocacy groups and public health experts called the measure — part of legislation enacted in 2018 that included limitations on the labeling of alcoholic beverages and its marketing by retailers — an important step toward combating alcohol abuse in Ireland.

“The availability of such volumes of cheap drink in every community in Ireland” has to be tackled “if we hope to address the chronic level of alcohol-related harm that demands so much of our health services,” said Frank Murray, chair of the advocacy group Alcohol Action Ireland.

Sheena Hogan, chief executive of Drinkaware, an Irish charity, said the measure was welcome, but added that it was not a “silver bullet” and that it needed to be combined with broader campaigns around awareness and education.

Some critics of the measure said it would unfairly penalize poorer people and those struggling with alcohol abuse.

“It’s not going to stop people buying alcohol,” said Roisin Nic Lochlainn, student union president at the National University of Ireland, Galway. “It’s just going to push people further into poverty, especially people who live with addictions.”