Government's Alcohol Strategy

In October 2013, the Minister of State for Primary Care, Alex White TD, announced that the Government had approved an extensive package of measures to deal with alcohol misuse, to be incorporated in a Public Health (Alcohol) Bill.

To implement this range of measures, the Government approved the drafting of the first ever piece of public health legislation to address the problem – the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill. The package of measures is based on the 2012 Substance Misuse Report.

The key measure approved by the Government is the drafting a Public Health (Alcohol) Bill to provide for:

Minimum unit pricing for retailing of alcohol products
Regulation of marketing and advertising of alcohol, specifically to
Enforcement powers will be given to Environmental Health Officers in relation
Structural Separation of alcohol from other products in mixed trading outlets. T
Regulation of sports sponsorship
Health labelling of alcohol products