Madam, - Recent coverage of the alcohol issue in Ireland in The Irish Times and other media has been characterised by hysterical over-reaction rather than mature analysis. This is perhaps best exemplified by your Editorial of April 26th calling for a ban on alcohol advertising.
The Irish drinks industry has never tried to deny there is serious misuse of alcohol in Ireland. Indeed the industry has been to the forefront of attempts to deal with the problem. But obscuring the facts with dramatic headlines does no service.
For example, the popular perception is that alcohol consumption continues to rise; in reality, both per capita and per adult consumption in 2004 were below the levels recorded in 2000.
And the popular perception is of a malevolent industry hell-bent on using advertising to push its products. But the reality is that the industry itself voluntarily initiated a code of practice to police alcohol-related advertising in conjunction with the advertising bodies and media owners (TV, radio, newspapers, poster and cinema). This initiative has led to a significant decline in the number of complaints made about ads for alcohol.
The media certainly have a role in reinforcing this image of a malevolent industry - not least in their willing use of the pejorative term "binge drinking". In fact binge drinking has such a narrow definition that it applies equally to a middle-aged couple spending a Saturday night in a restaurant consuming two bottles of wine between them over the course of a four-hour meal and a couple of young teenagers drinking on the side of the street with the sole intention of getting drunk. Hardly comparable scenarios.
But of course, if the debate about alcohol abuse in general and the power of advertising in particular was more honest, surely we would ask why Ireland's problems with young people and alcohol are mirrored so closely by its problems with young people and illegal drugs - when to my knowledge there are no ads for illegal drugs in the Irish media. - Yours, etc,
DICK DUNNE, Chairman, Drinks Industry Group of Ireland, Dublin 2.