Oireachtas Joint Committee on Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Butler, S.(consultant), Cullen, B. (consultant) (2006) , Report on the Inclusion of Alcohol in a National Substance Misuse Strategy, 2006.
This report illustrates that while research has long recognised that alcohol is an issue which cuts across many different sectors of government, the different sectors do not necessarily operate from an agreed policy agenda and that although WHO has long recommended the need for an integrated national management strategy for alcohol, a recommendation supported by successive government reports, no permanent structures were ever established to give effect to these recommendations. In contrast the report highlights that problems relating to illicit drugs, which have a much shorter history than alcohol, are being managed through the National Drugs Strategy in a manner consistent with Irish strategic management reform for improving the management if cross-cutting issues. In particular it is argued that the National Drugs Strategy has brought consistency and coherence to the complex arena of Irish drug policy, On this basis the report recommends the integration of alcohol and illicit drugs under a single National Substance Misuse Strategy.