THE NHS IN England has set aside £300,000 (€331,000) for so-called “drunk tanks” to allow festive revellers to sleep off the drink without having to go to A&E.

These services have been trialled before in a bid to prevent drunk people causing an unnecessary demand on emergency services, Sky News reported, with NHS chief executive Simon Stevens saying that it “does not stand for national hangover service”.

Calls for similar measures here have been made before, with Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer saying this year that people who present to A&E with no other ailment than being severely drunk “are clogging up the system for genuinely ill people who find themselves waiting for hours on end to be treated”.

The term drunk tank has of course passed into Christmas folklore as it features in the opening line of the Pogues’ Fairytale of New York.

So, today we’re asking you: Should the HSE pay for so-called ‘drunk tanks’ over the festive period?

