Ireland is not being well-served by its politicians in relation to treatment for alcohol problems, a seminar at the Royal College of Physicians was told last night.
Marion Rackard, executive director of Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), said there is not equal accessibility to services around the country.
"If you find yourself worrying or concerned about your own or someone else's drinking, you are not well served by the State," she said.
"We should be providing a range of economical treatments. They are not available to many."
She said the AAI had hoped that a national alcohol strategy would be developed to introduce the recommendations of the Strategic Task Force on Alcohol in 2004, but this had not happened.
There was no political will, she said, and what was needed was a minister who appreciated that the consequences of harm caused by alcohol in Ireland will be felt for years to come if it isn't tackled.
"Alcohol is not at the top of anybody's agenda, we need an agency dealing specifically with alcohol," she said.
Ms Rackard said alcohol was too easily available, too cheap, too well marketed and there was too much tolerance for drunkenness.
"There doesn't seem to be acceptance for the need to decrease availability," she said. "We know from the evidence that where effective regulation and decreased availability is introduced, the alcohol harm issues actually decrease."
She said the influence of the drinks industry was one of the major barriers to change.
Dr Declan Bedford, faculty of public health medicine at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, highlighted the connection between suicide and alcohol consumption and said that 90 per cent of suicides among under 30s were found to have alcohol in their blood and 58 per cent had double the legal limit.
"Most of these were young men and you can guarantee some of them had no intention of committing suicide before they started to drink."
Dr Bedford said the recommendations of the taskforce urgently needed to be implemented. He supported calls for an increase in taxation on alcohol and a decrease in the price of low-strength beers.
Dr Bedford also said that though a survey released by the Drinks Industry of Ireland yesterday showed a 6.7 per cent decrease in the amount of alcohol consumed per adult since 2001, the overall trend was upward and it probably represented a blip in the trend.
