Yet the receipts also reveal how our drinking habits have changed during the pandemic, with wine consumption up 12pc over 2019, followed by a slight increase in consumption of spirits – 0.7pc – while there was a 21pc decrease in consumption of beer and an 11.4pc drop in consumption of cider. Alcohol Action spokesman Eunan McKinney said: “The data for the year 2020 highlights the extraordinary shift that has taken place among Ireland’s dinking population and the ocean of alcohol that has poured into the nation’s homes.” “From the beginning of the Covid crisis we have been urging government to act on this consequence. The introduction of minimum unit pricing on alcohol products, which primarily applies to the off-trade who have experienced a profit boom, would act as some curb on what undoubtedly will be the source of many problems to come; a temporary lifestyle may now be permanent habit, meantime 200,000 children every day have to navigate the chaos of parental problem alcohol use.”