Alcohol consumption and domestic violence

I would like to congratulate the Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina for her passionate involvement and imprint in persevering through a long and winding road to deliver to Parliament the Domestic Violence Act which is expected to come into force shortly.

It may be pertinent to highlight that the minister said that she became involved in this issue in 1988 when, as a member of the Council of Women, she was asked to write an article on the subject: "I put my nose to the grindstone and did some research work. I was truly shocked to find that, in Catholic Malta, there were so many victims. At that time, it was believed to be one in five, with upward trends around Christmas time and village feasts. The figures have not changed much".

On December 23, I wrote in this daily under the heading Banning Alcohol Consumption By Minors, appealing to the minister to expedite the process that she initiated early in 2004 with a view to delivering to Parliament a law introducing, besides other measures, a minimum age (18 years) for alcohol consumption.

The minister's reference above to upward trends of domestic violence around Christmas time and village feasts highlights clearly the relationship between abuse of alcohol and domestic violence.

In this respect, I would like to appeal to the minister once again to immediately follow up the Domestic Violence Act with an Act regulating underage drinking, as time rolls over very fast and the young abusers of today will soon graduate into perpetrators of domestic violence to the detriment of our society's deteriorating state of health.