How The Pandemic Changed Irish Drinking Habits

0:00In Ireland, nothing gets us talking like lions. Tea? Small talk. Well, Jimmy, shark and weather, well, haven't. Big talk. Even I got to play county. Office talk. I'm MIA in the AM, but I'll circle back on the KP guys. Real talk. Milk before tea? Should be a criminal offense. You could say we talk too much. But the truth is... We don't talk nearly enough. Lions. What's the talk? Into Tea. With life pharmacy. Over 100 local pharmacies nationwide. That are always here to help. Life pharmacy. Live better together. Let's start with a very interesting new survey by the Independent Charity Drink Aware. Into our drinking habits. We're joined by Darvel O'Brien, the chief executive of Drink Aware. And tell us first of all, Darvela, about the finding that more than half of adults who drink are no more likely to drink at home

1:00than outside of the home. Yes. Thank you, Matt. So it's a new comparator report based on six years of data from the Drink Aware barometer. And there are some very interesting new patterns and trends that have kind of embedded themselves since over the past five, six years. And one of the key ones is that 55% of adults are now most likely to consume alcohol at home. But also, drinking at home alone at least once a week is now Ireland's most common drinking occasion. And that's quite significant. So 31% of adults drink at home alone at least once a week. So there's no company. Not even a partner or a family member. They're just doing it on their own. Maybe it's their... That's it. ...watching the television or listening to music or reading a book or whatever. Exactly. And the next two occasions are also drinking at home but often with somebody or company and that type of thing. So it's kind of the top three occasions but the single most popular occasion is drinking at home alone

2:00on a weekly basis. And if somebody's drinking at home, what sort of volumes are they consuming? Because they're unlikely to have a measure if they're pouring a glass of wine out of the bottle. Will they be finishing the bottle every time? Will there be any restrictions on what they're drinking? Well, that is the danger of drinking at home. Because you're not in a controlled environment. There is no closing time like there isn't the pub. Measures are poured freely and often we're unaware of what we're consuming. So there's a tendency to overpower and overdo it. And also it's become quite ubiquitous so it can come about as a result of it. It's not socializing. So it's probably habit or maybe boredom or maybe to de-stress or avoidance of something. So it is one to watch, particularly the fact that it's at home alone. Could it also be to do a price and that it's cheaper to drink at home than to go out to do so? Oh, I would say no doubt. I mean, there's lots of contributing factors

3:01as to why we're drinking more at home. I mean, it certainly became embedded during the pandemic for obvious reasons. But obviously, cost of living is playing a factor. And we can see that from pub closures over the last number of years. Does that suggest we need a campaign to get people out of the house if they're going to drink, that they should be doing so with others in a controlled environment such as the pub? Well, I think motivations for drinking are key. And I think if we can get people to stop and ask themselves, you know, what's their why? Why are they doing this? And even to experiment with just to be mindful about it, take a good look at it. We're not telling people what to do, but really consider what you're drinking and why you're drinking, particularly if you feel it's not serving you as well as it used to. So, you know, we're talking to the 75% of the population who consume alcohol, but are not considered to have an alcohol use disorder. And really what we want them to do is to become really, really aware of what they're doing. And if it's still serving them to question it.

4:02And to put things in place, and there are many things they can put in place, you know, to experiment with their own drinking habits and take a break. So I'm just so surprised that this idea of people really got into the habit of drinking at home because I'm thinking back to COVID. And all of the occasions when people were arranging to have points served out the door to them from their local pub, who'd be sitting in their local car parks with friends, or I can remember a couple of times sitting up by the banks of the river daughter, sitting out and then trotting off back up to the pub and doing back and all the tray of points. The social aspect got people out of the house and that's what they wanted to do rather than drinking at home. Yes, it did to some extent. But it also did see a rise of people then turning around to going home and drinking at home. And the fact is a lot of hubs were closed so they weren't serving to the same amount of people, for instance. So we can't say for sure it's because of the pandemic. I mean, drinking at home was a rising trend, but not to, I mean, when you look at 2018 figures,

5:04you know, it's quite a significant difference. And that was pretty pandemic. There could be many contributing factors, but the fact is it's happening. Okay, Catherine says, don't forget, there are very many people are single and so live alone, and not by choice. Don't just stereotype people saying they drink at home, not with a partner, also single women can't go to the pub alone, awful single women have a drink with a phone called to friends. Okay, that's a good point coming in from Catherine. What else have you found, Darvela, about the age profile of those who might be drinking a present? Well, it's very different patterns over different age cohorts. So for instance, you'll find that among weekly drinkers, so people who are drinking at least once a week, that peaks among the over 50 year olds at 61%, whereas you'll find that the 18 to 24 year olds are drinking at a lesser rate on a weekly basis at 40%. But then you come and you look at binge drinking,

6:04and that peaks amongst the 18 to 24 year olds, who 72% of them would have cited as binge drinking in the past 30 days. And then that's at its lowest amongst the over 65 year olds and over 50 year olds at a 50% and 37%. So it depends on the age cohort, it's different life stages. It is, isn't it also about financial resources or available to them? And also that perhaps when you're younger, you can feel you can go on for longer. Absolutely, but what we're also seeing amongst the younger age cohort, which is very interesting. And I think many of us will know this anecdotally. 27% of 135s cited themselves as not drinking, or certainly haven't drank in the last 30 days. That's quite significant. So on the one hand while you're seeing a growing rise in binge drinking amongst 18 to 24 year olds, you're also seeing the highest number of adults opting out of drinking amongst that age cohort as well, which is interesting. They become very physically aware, very well-ness aware, and are looking after themselves

7:07that bit better, it seems. Though hazardous patterns still persist in the cohort. There's loads of messages coming into 087-4102, so I'm going to read some of them out. Conor Emere says, you can't smoke in pubs. It's a bad idea to drink at home. WTF is safe. I love watching a good movie with the odd beer at home, might as well get some value out of the TV license. D in Golwa says it's too expensive to go to the pub now. Scandalous prices for pints and no taxis available to bring people home. Also, city centers are not safe at night. Another one says, rising costs, people are getting healthier, Netflix, etc. Here's one that says, and this is from Vinnie and Slaigo. I like to have a drink at home while watching the footballer golf. Sometimes with my wife, sometimes on my own. I was in the pub the other week, a controlled environment where someone was so drunk, he fell off the high stool not once, but twice. On both occasions, he hit his head extremely badly. If this is controlled, I'll take my chances at home.

8:08Another one says, do the maths. This is Fem bar and cork. If you were to go out and cork for a meal and a few social buns, nice burger place, not too fancy, 25 euro. Six pints, 36 euro, that's just buying your own pints. Six pints, I think that's binge drinking. When I leave that aside, taxi home, 20 euro at least, if you smoke 20 euro. That's 81 to 101 quid for a quiet night, insane. That's an interesting one. Rule number one, when it comes to drinking, is you either drink or you don't drink. Just because if you're not used to it, it just kills you with a hangover. Another one says, Sandra and Conamara, I live alone in a new place. I drink alone with my dinner after a day working in the garden. I can buy a bottle for the price of a glass in the pub where I'll have to fend off unwanted company. I can drink and I can smoke. I'm 55 in a bottle last two to three days, and I have no need to drive. Okay, what all those comments mean to you, Darvel? I mean, look completely understandable.

9:10Also, just to say, we're not passing any judgment in any of this. We're simply reflecting what the public are telling us in terms of their own drinking patterns. We think it's very, very interesting to look at the trends amongst the different cohorts, particularly where we can identify maybe cohorts who need addressing in terms of binge drinking information, beginning with information. Another interesting stat is that some of the winners in this are the supermarkets. No surprise given that more and more people are drinking at home. Weakly drinkers, 42% of them purchase their alcohol at the supermarket. Then cohorts follow after that, like garages and that type of thing. It is very interesting. There's lots of reasons as to why it's happening. But it's important that we know what is happening and understand it. Okay, Darvel O'Brien, Chief Executive of Drink Aware. Thank you. What do we some more of these many comments that are flooding in? Brian and Dublin says, I've gotten more drunk in pubs with a so-called control than I ever have at home, either by myself or with friends.

10:11This is because when you're in a pub with friends, you tend to get into the rounds system. People who are problem drinkers will be problem drinkers no matter where they are. It's interesting. No one says, lads, I'm widowed. If I want to glass a wine at home, I pour it. Another one here says, how about making it cheaper in pubs to drink by reducing the tax on pubs? Or encourage people to go to the pub and to meet people? Okay, that's another interest. It's easy to be critical of those who's drinking is tempered by taxpayer-sponsored GLP1. Okay, it is interesting though. A lot of people are actually reducing their intake of alcohol. Don't feel like having it, because they're no longer have the taste of it, because of the use of GLP1s. Another one says, oh, shock drinking at home alone, that's not new for God's sake. No, we're not saying it's new, but we're saying that according to this survey by drinker where that is enough, a lot more common than it used to be.

11:11Another one says, let's be real. I don't mean to generalize, but the other 35s are taking alternative intoxicants. Is that true? Is it just the under 35s who are taking illegal cocaine? For example, another says I drink two glasses of wine with a movie or a book on my own at least once a fortnight. My family work and hospitality, I don't. It's my quiet time. The last word. With life pharmacy. Over 100 local pharmacies nationwide that are always here to help. Life pharmacy. Live better together.