An analysis of the last decade of AAI’s accounts shows that the organisation is nearly entirely reliant on public funding in order to keep functioning – the HSE, on its own, has contributed over €2.1 million euro to AAI since 2013.
Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) is a well-known part of Ireland’s NGO infrastructure. The organisation, which describes itself as “the national independent advocate for reducing alcohol harm”, is most well known for its work on creating an Ireland “free from alcohol harm”; although personally I’ve always suspected that you could cut that sentence off after “alcohol.”
AAI is less well known for its belief, laid out in its Strategic Plan, that it is the “authoritative and authentic voice” in relation to alcohol and alcohol harm, and that “other actors are duplicitous and dubious.” Other actors, surrogates of the alcohol industry, as AAI calls them, are presumably those who are willing to work with the alcohol industry and the groups it funds, such as Drinkaware.
These groups, according to AAI, have led to a situation in which “intensely marketed alcohol products” are “widely available at pocket money prices.”
AAI is also less well known for its rather successful lobbying efforts, both political and across the media. This lobbying campaign is of particular interest as AAI is so heavily funded by the HSE that AAI has been nearly entirely reliant on public funds, primarily from the HSE, for its continued existence over the last decade.
Between 2013 and 2022, the last year we have records for, the AAI had revenue of €2.8 million, of which nearly €2.5 million has come from public funds – in the past 10 years the AAI has received less than €60,000 in donations from the public.
Over the same period AAI have spent nearly €1.9 million on staffing costs, with a total wage bill of €1.6 million.
Even though it is nearly entirely publicly funded an analysis of lobbying register returns show that AAI have logged 171 instances of lobbying between January 2016 and January 2024.
There were 85 instances in which AAI lobbied TDs, 50 in which they lobbied Senators, and another 20 in which they lobbied MEPs. The Department of Health, either officials or Ministers connected to it, was lobbied 77 times.
Most recently AAI have lobbied for: increases in the price of alcohol; the introduction of a levy on the alcohol industry; the establishment of an Office for Alcohol Harm Reduction; limits on the advertising of alcohol; health information labelling on alcohol; restrictions on zero alcohol products being advertising; and so on.
And that lobbying appears to be working; between 2019 and 2021 Mental Health Ireland donated funds to AAI to “co-fund a Policy Officer role.” This initiative, according to MHI, “had a major impact in progressing the Public Health Alcohol Act and has played a key role in informing public understanding on issues like Minimum Unit Pricing.”
AAI itself says that it was “highly instrumental in the formulation and successful passage of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018.” That bill contained minimum unit pricing for alcohol, restrictions on the advertising of alcohol, and a requirement that alcoholic products be segregated away from non-alcoholic products in shops – requirements which lead to the creation of what some of you may know by the jaunty nickname the booze burka.
AAI went on to describe the passage of this bill as “only a stepping stone.”
On the media side of things AAI’s strategic plan says that AAI’s objective is to “reinforce our position as the source of trusted information, analysis, opinion, research and data but also the lead in communication”.
A review of the last six years of AAI’s annual reports show they have logged 2,406 media mentions, references, quotes, or appearances, of AAI staff or research. In just the last three years they have 812 hits in broadcast media, and 260 hits in print media.
Public money is of course taxpayer money, which is to say your money, and so the question is why AAI is being given your money, by the government, in order to enable it to then turn around and lobby the Government.