Alcohol Action Ireland

29/07/2026

“We do referrals into every primary and secondary school in Northern Ireland. Domestic abuse doesn’t just happen in underprivileged communities and deprived areas. It happens to males and females, LGBTQ and ethnic minority communities. Solicitors, doctors and teachers can be victims — or perpetrators — of domestic abuse just as easily as police officers, cleaners and people who don’t work. It spans entire communities.”

New figures show that from September 2021 to April this year, the PSNI made almost 56,000 referrals to schools to ensure immediate support is provided to children affected by abuse in their homes, with increases in referrals around key holidays like St Patrick’s Day and Mother's Day.

The Operation Encompass programme is a partnership between the PSNI, Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland, the Education Authority and schools. It started as a pilot scheme and was rolled out to all schools in Northern Ireland in May 2023.

Under Operation Encompass, if police officers attend a domestic abuse call at a house where children live, they can pass on relevant information to the safeguarding team at the child’s school the following morning.

In Ireland legislation in being progressed which would provide the statutory basis to allow for the introduction of Operation Encompass here.

AAI, through its Silent Voices initiative, has been advocating for Operation Encompass since 2020.

Much appreciation must go to Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan TD, officials from the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, the Department of Education and Youth and Cuan, DSGBV Agency for their work on this.

Having Operation Encompass operating in Ireland would go a long way to addressing the substantial harm caused to children living with domestic abuse during these vital developmental stages of their lives.

It must be introduced as soon as possible.

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27/07/2026

“As people with lived experience of family violence, we all know the fear of the sound of the alcohol delivery driver. It’s like pouring petrol onto a bonfire.”

Between May 2025 and May 2026, Alcohol Change Victoria convened a series of roundtables with leading researchers, lived experience experts, policy professionals, and service providers from the alcohol and other drug (AOD) and domestic, family, and sexual violence (DFSV) sectors.

The discussion emphasised that although it is not a root cause of DFSV, alcohol use is one of the most consistent risk factors for DFSV, including intimate partner violence and violence against children, with a clear link between frequency and severity of alcohol use and DFSV.

The report reveals the complex interplay between alcohol and domestic,
family and sexual violence. Addressing this intersection requires:
* culturally safe, stigma-free, integrated services;
* the elevation of lived experience in all levels of service design, delivery,
and advocacy;
* strengthened laws, regulations, and policies to protect people from
harmful alcohol products; and
* greater investment in primary prevention

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Jim O'Callaghan TD

24/07/2026

New documentary by the Institute Of Alcohol Studies unpacks how alcohol companies exploit the same "addictive by design" platforms now facing landmark lawsuits over child safety.

With insight from Prof Antonia Lyons, University of Auckland and Prof Nicholas Carah, University of Queensland, and including testimony from Karen, a Balance North East spokesperson, the film covers:

* How AI-driven "lookalike" targeting finds heavy drinkers and pushes marketing to people just like them
* How celebrities and influencers promote their own alcohol brands without disclosing them as ads
* The rise of alcohol marketing in e-sports, gaming and the metaverse - reaching audiences that skew heavily under-18
* Why regulation has failed to keep pace, and what a WHO-style ladder of measures could look like

With governments from Australia to the UK now moving to restrict children's access to social media altogether, the time is now to tackle alcohol marketing the same way.

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24/07/2026

New study shows how public perspectives on alcohol policy solutions in Ireland are strongly influenced by industry narratives.

Greater awareness-raising of industry tactics among the public and the use of more evidence-informed framing approaches for public communications on alcohol are among the measures suggested to help build public understanding of and support for public health alcohol policies.

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22/07/2026

AAI will tomorrow (Thursday, 23 July) hold a live webinar, Driving Road Deaths to Zero, that will outline the well-evidenced measures that are available to address road safety issues, with a key area being the role of random breath testing.

Featuring contributions from Velma Burns, Research Manager at the Road Safety Authority Ireland, Leo Lieghio, Vice-President at IRVA Irish Road Victims Association, and Dr Eoin Fogarty, AAI board member and Emergency Medicine and Retrieval Consultant at Cork University Hospital, the keynote speaker is Dave Cliff, CEO of Global Road Safety Partnership, who will talk about the proven power of random breath testing – lessons from New Zealand and Australia.

This isn’t about asking gardai to just carry out more Mandatory Intoxication Testing (MIT) checkpoints. It’s about looking at the evidence and developing a strategic plan around breath tests, with yearly targets, that is properly resourced.

AAI is calling on government to provide funding in the next Budget for increases in strategic breath testing, support for garda administrative duties around breath tests, and support to help increase conviction levels, all alongside a public awareness campaign. One way to fund such an initiative is to increase excise duties, which haven’t been touched since 2014.

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22/07/2026

In our latest blog, AAI looks at the findings from two recently published HIQA reports to provide the necessary medical and scientific background to inform an update of Ireland’s national low-risk alcohol guidelines.

The scale of harm from low-to-moderate drinking was the standout finding of the reports.

Roinn Sláinte, Department of Health and HSE Ireland now have a choice to make in their approach to new lower-risk drinking guidelines.

The evidence from the HIQA analysis is unambiguous:
* there is no safe level of alcohol consumption, and
* the scale of low-to-moderate drinking means this group accounts for the majority of alcohol-related deaths and illness.

HIQA’s findings make a compelling case for updating Ireland’s outdated 2015 guidelines, bringing them in line with the growing number of countries now unequivocally stating that no amount of alcohol is risk-free.

READ MORE:
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01/07/2026

Today is the mid point of 2026 and road deaths (88) are significantly higher than at this stage last year (78), which was the deadliest year on our roads since 2014.

Road safety impacts every community in the country. More can be done.

AAI's live webinar - Driving road deaths to zero: A discussion on alcohol, road safety and the role of random breath tests (Thursday, 23 July, 10am to 11.30am) - will look at alcohol's impact on road safety and outline the international evidence on how best to tackle drink driving.

Speakers include:
* Dave Cliff, CEO of Global Road Safety Partnership, who will be speaking about the proven power of random breath testing – lessons from New Zealand and Australia.
* Velma Burns, Research Manager at Road Safety Authority Ireland, who will talk about the role of alcohol in casualty collisions.
* Eoin Fogarty, AAI board member and Emergency Medicine and Retrieval Consultant at Cork University Hospital.
* Leo Lieghio, Vice-President of IRVA Irish Road Victims Association

To register for this free webinar please visit:

A discussion on alcohol, road safety and the role of random breath tests.

30/06/2026

As policymakers look to reverse the current trend of increasing deaths on our roads, AAI is to hold a live webinar - Driving road deaths to zero: A discussion on alcohol, road safety and the role of random breath tests - on Thursday, 23 July, from 10am to 11.30am.

Speakers include:
* Dave Cliff, CEO of Global Road Safety Partnership, who will be speaking about the proven power of random breath testing – lessons from New Zealand and Australia.
* Velma Burns, Research Manager at Road Safety Authority Ireland, who will talk about the role of alcohol in casualty collisions.
* Leo Lieghio, Vice-President of IRVA Irish Road Victims Association
* Eoin Fogarty, AAI board member and Emergency Medicine and Retrieval Consultant at Cork University Hospital.

Road safety impacts every community in the country. More can be done.

To register for this free webinar please visit:

A discussion on alcohol, road safety and the role of random breath tests.

24/06/2026

While the slight increase in the numbers who accessed alcohol treatment services in 2025 – up by 53 cases from 2024 - is welcome, given the scale of the problem alcohol treatment is clearly not getting the resources required for a problem that causes so much harm not only to the individual but also to families and communities.

AAI is calling for funding to be provided to HSE Ireland to develop its own treatment services that are trauma-informed, holistic and widely available at the time of need. Funding must also be provided for Alcohol Care Teams linked to all large hospitals.

One way to fund such badly needed initiatives would be to increase alcohol excise duties in the next Budget.

Excise duties, which have the dual benefit of raising much needed revenue while at the same time helping reduce population-level alcohol consumption and therefore its associated harms, have not been increased in over 12 years so their public health benefit has been eroded by inflation.

Government should also develop a ‘polluter pays’ alcohol levy system similar to the gambling industry’s Social Impact Fund, with funding raised to be ringfenced for alcohol harm reduction strategies.
Simon Harris TD Roinn Sláinte, Department of Health

READ MORE ⬇️

Alcohol Action Ireland press release, Wednesday, 24 June 2026 Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), the national independent advocate to reduce alcohol harm, welcomes the increase in the numbers who accessed alcohol treatment services in 2025 – up by 53 cases from 2024 – according to the Health Resear...

22/06/2026

Only one day to go!

Inspired by two recent publications (No Small Talk by Paddy Creedon and Denise Costa, and Growing Up with Addiction by Dr. Tian Dayton) Alcohol Action Ireland is pleased to host a free online panel discussion with a number of experts in trauma-informed services - many with lived experiences - on Tuesday, 23rd June, from 6pm to 7.15pm.(Irish time)

The discussion, Rewriting the Script – Healing Invisible Wounds, will explore the questions many people carry but rarely ask:
* Why do some family wounds stay with us for decades?
* How does growing up around addiction shape adult life?
* What role does trauma play in recovery and healing?
* How do we break cycles that pass from one generation to the next?
* What does genuine healing look like beyond survival?

The panel includes:
* Dr. Tian Dayton (USA), Keynote speaker: internationally renowned author and public speaker.
* Clive Corry (Northern Ireland), founder/director, Action Trauma Network.
* Denise Costa (Brazil), writer, researcher and observer of human behaviour. Denise’s poem Feminine is included in No Small Talk.
* Paddy Creedon (Ireland), poet and recovery advocate. Author of No Small Talk. “No Small Talk is the kind of book you don’t just read, you carry around with you in your heart” - Araminta Jonsson, CEO of Mint Partnership and founder of Transform Trauma Oxford.
* Marion Rackard (Ireland), founder member of Alcohol Action Ireland and Silent Voices, psychotherapist and addiction counsellor.
* Dr. Keisha Siriboe (USA) is a globally recognized leader in racial literacy education, equity-centered leadership, and transformational healing practices.
* Mary Tucker (USA), CEO of UPIC Health and co-founder of My Care Village, a non-profit Covid response initiative in 2020. .

Facilitator: Dr. Sheila Gilheany (Ireland), CEO, Alcohol Action Ireland.

Addiction is rarely just about alcohol or substances. It can leave an invisible legacy, affecting identity, relationships, self-worth, trust and belonging long after the addiction itself has ended. Whether you are in recovery, support someone who is, work professionally in the field, or simply want to better understand the human stories behind addiction, this conversation will offer practical insight, honest reflection and a message of hope.

Healing isn’t just about recovering from what happened; it’s about becoming free from the scripts that no longer serve us.

We would love if you could join us as we explore how invisible wounds can become sources of strength, connection and transformation.

This is a free event and all are welcome.

Please register by clicking the below link

An Online Discussion Based on the new poetry book No Small Talk by Paddy Creedon & Denise Costa & Growing Up with Addiction by Tian Dayton