The Irish government is reportedly planning to delay plans to introduce labels with health warnings and calorie information on alcoholic drinks.
In 2023, Ireland passed legislation to require alcohol producers to include health warning labels on drinks labelling information for alcoholic beverages.
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The labels were intended to highlight the risks of drinking alcohol as well as include information on a product’s calorie content. They were due to be introduced from May 2026.
However, according to reports from The Irish Times and Politico, implementation of the legislation is expected to be delayed by several years.
According to The Irish Times, implementation of the law is expected to be pushed to 2029.
Two senior government officials told Politico the move was being made due to fears of US tariffs affecting Ireland’s drinks exports.
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By GlobalDataAn email sent to members of the government’s trade forum on Tuesday suggested an official decision on the delay would be made later in July, according to The Irish Times.
Unnamed sources told the local news outlet that the Government was still “public health led” but looking to be “aligned with Europe”.
Just Drinks has contacted Ireland’s Department for Health and Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment for comment.
Commenting on the report, CEO of Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), Dr Sheila Gilheany said: “No decision has been made yet on labelling and this is clearly yet another instance of the alcohol industry and their friends in government putting more pressure on the Taoiseach and Health Minister to turn their backs on public health.”
She added that it is “bizarre that the government should even contemplate delaying this measure which has been in planning for years,” as it is also “entirely disingenuous for government ministers to suggest that Ireland should wait for an EU-wide label.”
“Any decision to delay the regulations has consequences, not least the 4,000 people who will receive a cancer diagnosis caused by alcohol and the multiple thousands of babies who will be born with FASD in the four years that a delay has been mooted for,” the AAI CEO said.
Gilheany added that despite the recent reduction in alcohol consumption in Ireland, “we are still drinking at a level 35% above lower-risk guidelines and still endure a very heavy burden of harm caused by alcohol.”
Just Drinks has also approached Drinks Ireland and Drinks Industry Group of Ireland for comment.
At the start of this month, the UK government laid out plans to bring in “mandatory” nutritional and health warning labels onto alcoholic drinks.
In its 10 Year Health Plan, the government said it was setting out to “tackle harmful alcohol consumption” with “new standards for alcohol labelling”.
It added it would “strengthen and expand on existing voluntary guidelines for alcohol labelling by introducing a mandatory requirement for alcoholic drinks to display consistent nutritional information and health warning messages”.
