There will be many families whose Christmas will be destroyed because of drink. Not all of these were old people who emigrated in the Fifties and Sixties. Many of them were people who recently left home. They were the rejects of the Celtic Tiger and in most cases their homlessness was because of drink. It is time society woke up to the fact there is a major problem of alcohol abuse in the country.
Alcoholism is a disease.
It is the only disease we laugh about when we see a person with too much to drink. The total recorded salmon catch in the North West region this year amounted to 40,565 fish, and increase of 10 per cent on the 1999 catch. However, according to Mr. Vincent Roche, Chief Officer of the regional board, the catch is still among the lowest since regional catch figures were first compiled in 1981. A breakdown in the catch between the various methods shows that drift nets accounted for 71 per cent, draft nets for 2 per cent and rod and line catches for 27 per cent. The total recorded sea trout catch in the region was 5,557 fish which represented a decrease of 2 per cent on the 1999 catch.