The expected deferral of health labelling on alcohol products is a signal of just how nervous the Government is about the present trading and economic environment.
At a time when businesses and exporters are facing unprecedented uncertainty about trading conditions, Ministers were reluctant to add another cost for something many say is important, but fewer believe is urgent.
[ Health labelling on alcoholic drinks set to be deferred until 2029 ]
The planned introduction of the law next year would have made Ireland the first country in the world to insist on health warnings on bottles containing alcoholic drinks.
Retailers would be obliged to ensure every container that contains alcohol carries the messages that “drinking alcohol causes liver disease” and “there is a direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers”.
RM Block
Insiders say the decision to postpone, likely to be approved by Cabinet next week, is also testament to the fierce lobbying by the drinks industry in recent months. This took place at many levels, not least of which was the trade forum convened by Tánaiste Simon Harris to discuss business fears and to suggest ways of addressing them.
The issue of alcohol labelling has been raised at every single meeting, one person familiar with the issue says. In his letter to the members of the trade forum on Tuesday, Mr Harris acknowledged this.
“Members of the forum also raised the issue regarding alcohol labelling and its potential impact,” Harris said. “The Government will consider this matter next week. We are fully committed to the implementation of this public health policy. However, it is imposing costs on businesses at a time of great challenge and the Government is reflecting on that.”
Indeed, insiders say the decision to defer the introduction of alcohol labelling has been inevitable for some time. Ministers have been muttering in public for months about “looking at this issue again”. In private, many were a good deal more forthright.
But various elements of the drinks industry had been lobbying against the measures since long before it was legislated for two years ago, but they failed to stop it. So what changed in recent months?
According to people involved in the issue in Government, it was the transformed environment due to US president Donald Trump’s import tariffs that proved decisive in persuading the Ministers to back a deferral of the measure until 2029.
Alcohol products – whether US bourbon, Irish whiskey or French wine – have been touted by both sides as potential targets in a trade war. Suddenly, it seemed like a bad time to be piling additional costs on producers and retailers.
For anti-alcohol campaigners, the news will be a bitter blow. “The eyes of the world are on Ireland,” Prof Frank Murray, chair of Alcohol Action Ireland, wrote in The Irish Times earlier this year. That may be all the more true now.
