Katherine Brown, director of the Institute of Alcohol Studies thinktank, said: "Before addressing individual drinkers it's important to begin by tackling the problem at the source, making it less easy to access cheap strong drink in supermarkets at all hours.
Harmful consumption of alcohol rose from eighth to fifth leading cause of death and disability, worldwide, between 1990 and 2010 and the OECD says that that four in five drinkers would reduce their risk of death from any causes if they cut their alcohol intake by one unit a week.
However critics say the "piecemeal" policy is ineffective on its own, and called for consistent application of other measures instead, including a return of the banned drinkers register and the continuation of temporary beat locations (TBLs), where police question customers.
At the same time, wine drinkers the world over started becoming more demanding.
It is so flavour-packed, in fact, that it may be too much for some lager drinkers.
In those early days, bemused local drinkers rubbed shoulders with revelling now-generation teens and twenty somethings, bouncing to electroclash or rousing leftfield indie tunes.
But, for all that, there is a certain satisfaction in seeing Greene King forced to minimise the presence of its own beers (that IPA, Noble lager) in its own pub, and, undoubtedly, the Grain Store will expose some drinkers to exciting new beers they would otherwise not have encountered.
With throngs of shoppers darting in and out of stores on Grafton Street and drinkers slaking their thirsts outside the pubs on side streets all the way up to St Stephen's Green, you could be forgiven for wondering, momentarily at least: recession, what recession?
The food scientist, lecturer and one-time Heston Blumenthal protege tailors her events on the science of flavour and gastronomy according to the group – in this case a set of keen and enquiring drinkers.
Seeing everyone's different reactions to these tests has heightened the social dynamic of the evening: the experience remains shared, but we are all thinking about what our fellow drinkers are tasting, where our experiences meet and where they diverge.
He said public education campaigns asking drinkers not to consume more than they should were doomed to fail and only tougher tactics, including the introduction of a minimum unit price to ensure people drink less, would have any real effect.
