The Government’s decision to delay the planned rollout of alcohol health information labelling, is a “serious threat to public health”, according to the IMO President.  

Dr Anne Dee, a Consultant in Public Health, said the delay “until 2028 at the earliest”, places corporate interests ahead of the health and wellbeing of Irish people.

The Government’s action would result in preventable incidences of cancer, increased incidences of liver disease, and harm to children “because of a refusal to fully enact a bill signed into law seven years ago”.

Dr Dee added that the labelling provisions under the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 are a critical tool in reducing alcohol-related harm, particularly when Ireland “continues to experience worsening rates of liver disease, alcohol-related cancers, and foetal alcohol spectrum disorder”.

“This is about giving people the basic information that alcohol causes cancer, liver damage, and harm during pregnancy. These are irrefutable facts. There is no excuse for keeping them off the label,” she said. “The longer this Government delays, the more irreversible damage is done.”

The IMO President further criticised the influence of “vested interests” in opposing the measure.

“We welcome the fact that the Government recently reiterated its refusal to meet with representatives of the tobacco industry in keeping with Ireland’s obligations under international frameworks that recognise health-harming industries. But why is the alcohol industry, which produces a substance that results in the deaths of up to 1,500 people in Ireland every year, treated differently?”

Dr Dee reiterated that the full implementation of all measures in the Public Health (Alcohol) Act “must happen” without any further delay.

The incoming President of the IMO has warned that health inequalities in Ireland are having a “disastrous” impact on public health. Dr Anne Dee, a Consultant in Public Health Medicine in the Mid-West region, was speaking ahead of the AGM of the IMO which takes place in Killarney from today (Thursday) to Sunday. Dr Dee will become IMO President this evening as the AGM begins.

Dr Dee warned that communities on the margins in Ireland are suffering from far poorer health outcomes than those with access to better housing, education and work opportunities. She said that these differing health outcomes represented a “cauldron of future problems for the State”.

The AGM will hear a motion calling on the Taoiseach to establish a cross departmental group to address health inequality in Ireland. The motion calls for the group to be tasked with addressing the social, environmental and commercial determinants of health and to develop a fully funded plan to reduce the levels of inequality.

Dr Dee said: “We cannot let inequalities grow and then expect to deal effectively with the results that then occur. Comprehensive multiagency programmes and targeted outreach from the State are critically important to reverse what is a worrying and damaging trend.”

The AGM will also feature a panel discussion on the role of pornography in fuelling sexual and gender-based violence. There will also be a session on confronting the care deficit for patients with severe and enduring mental illness. On Saturday, the meeting will hear from the CEO of the HSE, Mr Bernard Gloster.

Other issues that will feature at the meeting include the costs of overdiagnosis and investigation, how to navigate the care deficit for patients with severe and enduring mental illness, the need to urgently invest in bed capacity and doctor numbers, and the ongoing impact of the HSE Pay and Numbers Strategy on patient care.

On the issue of resources, Dr Dee called on the Government to introduce a realistic, multi-annual funding programme which meets the needs of the growing and ageing population, and which would allow doctors to deliver quality treatment.

“The perennial short-term thinking of successive governments has had a seriously detrimental effect on the health service,” she said.

“We need to see a multi-annual approach to funding which acknowledges the complex needs of our population and which addresses the fact that we do not have enough doctors in this country, that those who are working here are burnt out and overworked, that waiting lists are too long, that capacity is too stretched, that morale is too low and that doctor recruitment and retention is too challenging.”