I thank the committee for affording us the opportunity to discuss this subject. I assure the committee that, as an industry, we fully recognise that the abuse of alcohol is now a most serious issue facing society. Not only does the industry have a very obvious role to play, which is the carrying out of its business in a responsible way, but it also has an important role to play in developing and implementing programmes and activities which will engage and encourage consumers to adopt a sensible approach to the consumption of the beers, wines and spirits it produces.
The companies represented here today all have a long and established presence in Ireland. As such, we believe we have conducted our business in a responsible and sensitive way and have always taken seriously the importance of our role in society. While we, as individual companies, have benefited from the business we have successfully conducted here, we have, in many different ways, contributed significantly to both the economic development of the country and also to the community as a whole through the very many activities in which we have been, and are, engaged.
We are proud of the strong portfolio of well known and premium brands, most of which have been on the Irish market for many years, and we intend they will remain so. Our focus is very much on the consumer as the primary reason for being in business and we pride ourselves in developing brands that satisfy consumer needs.
The abuse of alcohol products is the focus of attention today and has been a subject of attention and concern for some time. Alcohol products have been in existence for over 3,000 or 4,000 years and the vast majority of people consume products in a sensible and moderate way and enjoy the great pleasure and benefits which they bring. The issue of abuse is not a new phenomenon either. I recently came across a quotation from around 600 BC attributed to the Greek philosopher Plato, expressing views about that very topic. I will not read out his words.
There certainly have been very dramatic and frightening changes in the manner in which some people now abuse alcohol. We have seen a trend where people, particularly young people, drink just to get drunk. We hear of the cost to our health services or the impact on accident and emergency units in hospitals on a regular basis. We hear of and see the effects of serious binge drinking among the young and not so young, and are aware of the level street violence, the drastic effects of drink driving, family violence or the effects of careless sexual activity.
Rightful concerns are expressed also about excessive consumption in a more general sense, which may lead to health difficulties later in life. These are intolerable to us as a society and it is imperative that we all work together to secure a more balanced approach to the consumption of our products by those who engage in such abuse. Those of us present today, representing most of the major suppliers from the drinks industry, are prepared to play a full and proactive part in ensuring a responsible approach by all, young and old, to the consumption of alcohol. We have to ask why we are encountering the sort of abuse we are seeing in society, and I believe that an exploration of some of the factors may also be key to actually trying to find a way of reducing the level of abuse.
We are constantly told that the increase in the level of overall consumption over the past ten years has put us in the top three countries in terms of consumption in Europe. We should not have been terribly surprised that this occurred. After all, our demographics were moving us in that direction because of the population bulge in the age bracket where most consumption occurs. In the past ten years, our population in the 18 to 65 age bracket increased by approximately 28%. There were other factors too. Our tiger economy helped fuel the consumption pattern, with greater affluence particularly among young people. The disappearance of duty free products has changed the consumption pattern, as has the enormous growth in tourism and the increase in the number in the workplace.
Interestingly, if one looks at the levels of consumption in Europe, one finds that there are six or seven other countries, such as Spain, Germany and France, all within a few drinks per year of each other in terms of the overall levels of consumption. Therefore, we are not entirely unusual as a modern society in terms of the consumption of alcohol, as some commentators might suggest, although we are witnessing too many of the side effects of excess.
Why is this? This is a key question and has only recently started to be asked in the debate. I say this because it is too easy to attribute all the ills of society to alcohol abuse and, unfortunately, in adopting this approach we will not get at the underlying factors which are so relevant in trying to find solutions to the difficulties we are experiencing. Undoubtedly, a significant level of abuse is driven by the enormous changes which we have witnessed within our society over the past 20 years or so. We have to consider what might have been described as the traditional controlling influences, such as parents, who continually have to contend with enormous pressures within the family circle, and the huge changes in the levels of influence traditionally held by the likes of the church, the Garda, teachers and authority in general.
We also have to look at the enormous influence that commercial communication, particularly radio and television, has had on us over the past 20 or 30 years. Surely we have to accept that some of the images we see regularly on television screens and the values - or, rather, the lack thereof - presented to us are influencing young people on a regular basis. If one takes this further, one might question the role and influence technology has to play in influencing the thinking of young people in particular. I recently saw a description of a computer game which had liberal doses of physical and sexual violence, all part of the challenge to achieve the ultimate goal. We have to ask what influence this has on a young, impressionable person.
Furthermore, we have rapidly caught up with the trends and styles of other parts of the world in a very short period. This has been largely to our benefit but as a society we have not managed to be sufficiently selective in choosing the influences that impact on us for the better. With the effect of the so-called global village, it probably is naive to suggest that we could have been. Add this to the pressures which people encounter in their everyday lives within the family, the workplace and even getting to and from it, the influence of the consumer society which we have embraced and the constant anxiety for what might be described as instant gratification. The effect is that these can drive people, especially many younger people, up to and beyond the normal boundaries.
Based on this brief resumé, members will have gathered from this that our society is encountering enormous pressures, which suggests more than ever that alcohol abuse is more a symptom of some of the difficulties and pressures which people are facing today rather than a cause. I am not suggesting that this is always the case but it indicates that there is more need than ever before to try to tackle it on those terms. Added to this is the frightening impact of illicit drugs on our society and the dilemma faced by those trying to deal with such problems in differentiating between the two or indeed trying to cope with both.
In making these comments, I am not suggesting that stringent efforts should not be undertaken to deal with our major problems of alcohol abuse, but this effort must be undertaken on a concerted basis and it must be effective and be seen to be so. The noises we see and hear about alcohol abuse pitches different groups against each other. We have the health, legal and competition forces all apparently pulling in different directions. This was reflected in the recently published report of the Commission on Liquor Licensing which emphasised the need for the development of a new alcohol strategy with an overall Government approach, implemented under the Department of the Taoiseach and involving all relevant Departments.
We in the industry would heartily support such an approach. It would be fair to say that there are as many theories about how to tackle abuse as there are variants of drink products. In the first instance, there is a significant need to focus on and highlight the role of personal responsibility in the whole area of abuse as well as parental control directed towards solving the issue of under-age drinking. The industry is glad to see that the need to direct attention at the area of personal responsibility has been emphasised to a increasing extent in recent times. In this area, our belief is that there is particular scope to explore innovative and targeted educational approaches. We recognise that they can only form part of an overall approach and will not necessarily solve the problems of today. They will help, but most importantly they will set down the groundwork for the years ahead.
We have concerns that some of the proposals will not really get at the root of the problem but are more about being seen to be doing something. One theory regularly put forward is that availability of alcohol products should be reduced by pushing prices upwards through tax - mainly excise duty on beers, wines and spirits. This is based on the theory that the more alcohol which is drunk overall, the more problems there will be. Control total volume by price - it is argued - and there will be fewer problems of highly excessive drinking. However, we must bear in mind that we already have one of the highest tax regimes in Europe on beer, wine and spirits and, as an industry, we are already seeing the graph for total consumption move in the opposite direction as demographics and the individual economic pressures are beginning to kick in.
We also hear that the advertising and promotion of alcohol products has had a huge bearing on the increases in consumption, particularly among young people. We hear of the enormous amounts of money spent on advertising and sponsorship and, as a consequence, this is put forward as a reason for increased consumption and abuse. Our evidence is that the effect of advertising and promotion on overall consumption cannot be easily quantified because most of it is brand advertising and competitive by nature. Advertising or promotion generally involves one company competing against another for a market and for every winner there is also a loser. It certainly tries to make a consumer change his or her behaviour very slightly by just buying a different brand. There is strong evidence to substantiate this view. Advertising and promotion in Ireland are also highly regulated.
I assure members that the industry takes its social responsibilities seriously with regard to the consumption of alcohol and wants to play a full and active part in trying to deal with the issue. The industry is a highly regulated one and all of us involved must on the one hand abide by the laws under which we operate, and on the other if we do not, then the law must be effectively enforced. Apart from dealing with this problem on a concerted industry basis, individual companies too have their own corporate social responsibility programmes which focus on this key area. It is fair to say that all companies, for example, have their own comprehensive codes of practice dealing with how they market and promote their products. I know that within companies there are processes in place aimed at ensuring that products and the marketing approaches used do not encourage abuse. Many also either have programmes in place or in development aimed at discouraging abuse.
I must state quite emphatically that companies do not in any way target those who are under the legal drinking age through their marketing efforts. We recognise that young people can be exposed to these. This is the case with all forms of marketing communications, but the codes fully recognise this and insist that the images and activities should in no way encourage young people to consume or abuse their products. Overall, the industry has to play a proactive role in this whole area. This approach has been in place for many years and the intent is that it will do so in a more intensive way in the future. Interestingly, in the early 1980s the industry was heavily involved in developing a self-regulatory approach to advertising and promotion which in broad terms has served us well since then. In the late 1980s the drinks industry group established a social aspects of alcohol committee which developed and implemented programmes aimed at encouraging a more sensible approach to alcohol consumption. For example, it implemented a range of advertising campaigns aimed at drink driving. In addition, it was involved in the development of an educational video aimed particularly at young people, which highlighted the dangers of drinking and driving. It developed and implemented, in conjunction with the Department of Health and CERT, a responsible server of alcohol training programme. This has now been developed further and is being rolled out across the retail trade.
More recently, it accepted there were some shortcomings in the way the self-regulatory process surrounding alcohol advertising was applied. For example, an advertisement which might be in breach of the code of the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland, ASAI, could have appeared for a period pending receipt of a complaint and its consideration and judgment by that body's complaints committee. In other words, the damage an advertisement might be perceived to be doing will be well and truly done while that process was in train. I am glad to say that, through the Association of Advertisers in Ireland and the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland, a new organisation called Central Copy Clearance Ireland, CCCI, has been established to vet all advertising materials prior to publication. This works with advertisers and their agents from concept stage through to finished product to ensure, as much as is feasible, that an advertisement complies with the ASAI code. All of the drinks companies have agreed to participate and fund this new organisation. Most importantly, all of the media owners - that is radio, television, cinema, posters and print media - have agreed not to accept an advertisement unless it has received the stamp of approval from Central Copy Clearance Ireland. This unique approach will go a long way towards reducing the incidence of complaints or concern about the content of alcohol advertisements in the future. The facility to complain to the ASAI still remains.
In the past two years, it became increasingly obvious to us in the industry that because of the increased level of abuse which we are seeing in our society, there was a need to establish a dedicated and independent resource to deal with these issues in a more intensive way. Consequently, the industry took the initiative in establishing the new social responsibility organisation, MEAS, which came into being last November. Although funded by the industry, it was agreed that this would operate most effectively at arm's length and I know that its chief executive,Fionnuala Sheehan, will amplify this most readily when she addresses the committee.
On behalf of the industry, we appreciate the opportunity to discuss this issue with members today. We trust that following this meeting they will conclude that we do approach our business in a highly responsible way and that we are anxious to work with all parties in trying to deal with this critical issue facing society today.
