Latest news with #healthlabelling
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Health
- Irish Times
Health labelling on alcoholic drinks set to be deferred until 2029
The Government is set to defer plans to require health labelling on alcoholic drinks until 2029, it is expected. In an email sent to members of its trade forum on Tuesday, the Government signalled that a decision on deferring the long-planned move will be made next week. However, it is expected within Government that the introduction of the labels - which was due next year - will be deferred to 2029. Sources said that the Government is still committed to a policy which is 'public health led' but that it would now be 'aligned with Europe'. READ MORE [ TD says she hasn't drunk alcohol in over 13 years during impassioned plea to not delay health-warning labels Opens in new window ] Mandatory health labelling for alcohol products, including cancer warnings, was among a raft of measures included in the Public Health Alcohol Act. The plan had been to introduce the labels in May 2026. However, lobbying by industry focused on additional costs for Irish producers at a time when they may be facing crippling US tariffs and for months, Government ministers have been hinting that the implementation of the legislation was likely to be delayed. [ Should plans to put cancer warning labels on alcohol go ahead? A doctor and a wine expert debate Opens in new window ] On Tuesday morning Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke said he was awaiting a Cabinet decision on the status of the labelling plans. He has been supportive of a delay in the measure and spoke of the 'enormous amount of regulation in this country'. He said regulation must be 'proportionate', that alcohol consumption in Ireland is on a 'downward trajectory' and 'we have to protect our indigenous sector.' He said some distillers have ceased or reduced production and he highlighted the 'pressure' of labelling as an additional cost to business. Mr Burke said his view is Ireland should 'move with Europe' and 'do it together if a point in time in the future' He added: 'acting unilaterally on a sector that is vulnerable through tariffs is not a good idea. He continued: ''I look at the prism of protecting jobs' adding: 'I think as a country we really need to get a handle on reducing red tape'. Taoiseach Micheál Martin separately suggested Irish moves in this area would be in 'concert with the European Union.' He said: 'alcohol does cause cancer' and 'that's an important point to acknowledge.' Mr Martin also said the majority of measures in the Public Health Alcohol Act that includes the plans for the labels, have been implemented and there has been 'a very effective implementation on the broader act in respect of public health.' He said Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill would bring clarity on the labelling issue. Under the law, once implemented, all bottles, cans and other containers must contain a back label stating: drinking alcohol causes liver disease; there is a direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers; a warning symbol for drinking when pregnant; and the website The label should also state the quantity of grams of alcohol and the energy value expressed in kilojoules and kilocalories. The label must be at least 60mm wide and not less than 30mm high surrounded by a black border.
Irish Times
21-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Sinéad Gibney tells of how cousin Des Bishop ‘helped me to reflect on my own drinking'
It was a routine slot in the Dáil early on Thursday morning. Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke was taking oral questions from TDs. Somebody asked him about mandatory health labelling on alcohol products. He replied the Government might defer its introduction because of the threat of US tariffs. Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney intervened to say she opposed putting the labels on the long finger. It was then that she disclosed to the chamber, and by extension to the public, her own relationship with alcohol. 'I haven't had a drink of alcohol in 13½ years. Alcohol and its negative impacts have played a huge part in my life,' she told the Dáil. Gibney had thought through what she would say and the fact she would be making this very public revelation to support her opposition to this rollback of policy. She had spoken publicly about her drinking in the past but knew that saying it in the Dáil would draw a different level of attention to her personally. READ MORE [ TD says she hasn't drunk alcohol in over 13 years during impassioned plea to not delay health-warning labels Opens in new window ] The Social Democrats TD for Dublin-Rathdown has been perceived as a high achiever throughout her career, having been head of social action with Google Ireland and the chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission . However, from her mid-teens to her mid-30s, she had a problematic relationship with alcohol. 'My drinking had always been too heavy. I had my first drink at 14. I was regularly drinking by the time I was 16. I'm not good at stopping. 'I was good craic, but I would always be the last person standing, and that's not good for your health ... That pattern was always there, absolutely.' Things came to a head in her mid-30s. She was a single mother, working in Google and studying for a master's degree. 'I had a busy social life and, like a lot of Irish people, I drank too much. 'It wasn't detrimental to my friendships. I was a life-and-soul type of person but it was detrimental to me in terms of my own mental health. I had a lot of bad hangovers.' There was no epiphany moment, no intervention. She decided to see if she could live her life without alcohol. She also wanted to be more present for her daughter, Bella, who was 11 at the time. 'I knew that I just wasn't there for Bella in a way that I wanted to be. That was definitely part of my motivation.' The comedian Des Bishop is her cousin and he had a destructive relationship with alcohol as a younger man. She talked to him frequently around this time. 'He helped me to reflect on my own drinking and what it was like in my life. That prompted self-reflection in me. And so I decided to test my life without alcohol.' 18/12/2024 - NEWS - Image as the Dail return's. Sinead Gibney SD. Photograph Nick Bradshaw / The Irish Times At the time, she did not describe it to herself as an addiction. 'I saw myself as somebody who worked hard and played hard. I did not necessarily think I had a problem with alcohol.' Nonetheless the drinking patterns were not healthy. 'I might have a bottle of wine in the fridge that I would have over a few nights, and then sometimes I wouldn't put the bottle away. On a weeknight, drinking a full bottle of wine is not good. The thing is it did not interfere with my work. It was much more impactful on my relationship with my daughter and, indeed, with myself.' She had picked a date of mid-January 2012 to stop. But a 'hard night' out just after Christmas, and a horrendous hangover, brought the date forward to New Year's Eve. She has not taken alcohol since. 'I just bare-knuckled it. The thing about addiction is that when you take away the painkiller you feel the pain. I went into therapy a few months later and I had a brilliant therapist. I've been in therapy multiple times in my life. I'm a big fan of it and very open about it. 'I was dealing with stuff that arose because I gave up alcohol and that was why I needed that therapy journey.' She said that people advised her she would probably not get a whole lot out of Alcoholics Anonymous at that time. 'So I chose not to go. I did go to AA years later for a period and really found it very helpful. But at the time for me, therapy was a really good support in navigating through life without alcohol.' She says she doesn't tend to use the word alcoholic a lot mainly because of the reaction it provokes and because addiction is a complex topic. 'A lot of us have forms of addiction in our lives that we don't really own up to. I think it was probably years later that I probably started to say the word alcoholic, but I did talk about addiction and recovery from quite soon after. My sobriety now is something I really treasure.' The personal benefits were immeasurable. 'It transformed my relationship with my daughter. I became so much more present, and the quality of time that we had together just shot up.' The change was not without big challenges, though: 'I now had to navigate social anxiety and how to be around people in a social setting without the crutch of alcohol. 'I spend a lot of time in my life working on my self-awareness. I do not feel that I would be here where I am today if I hadn't made that choice around alcohol. 'I think there is a large amount of potential in this country that is untapped because of alcohol. People will hear my story, and hopefully some people will hear something similar to what they experience. Every single human should examine their relationship with alcohol.'
