A new measure passed by Ireland’s legislature also creates a minimum unit price for alcohol and restricts advertising of drinks, bans ads in public parks, bus stops and train stations. It also requires warnings of the link between cancer and alcohol to be placed on product labels, as well as the number of calories.
Patricia Callan, director of the Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland, said the bill would create “too big a barrier” for some companies to sell their products in Ireland.
She also criticized the health warnings: “The scientific evidence certainly doesn’t warrant the direct link of alcohol and cancer.”
Health minister Simon Harris said: “Alcohol damages our health, it harms our communities, it hurts many families and the measures in this bill are designed to change that relationship.
“It’s about putting in place a number of measures for the first time ever in a public health perspective to try and change that corrosive culture that we currently we have with alcohol in Ireland,” he added.