Hospital sees more than 100 children with 'acute alcohol intoxication' in three years

One of the country's largest children's hospitals says girls make up almost two thirds of minors they have treated for alcohol poisoning.

Dublin's Temple Street Hospital says 114 children as young as 11 have presented at the hospital with "acute alcohol intoxication" over the past three years.

The hospital says 74 of them were girls.

Dr Alf Nicholson, the Consultant Paediatrician at Temple Street, said: "I think there are two things at play here, one is that girls react less well to alcohol in large volumes because they are of smaller size.

"But I think there is just a general trend in Ireland today for the young girls, teenagers and post-adolescent girls to take more alcohol than before and a lot more spirits than before."