Parents uninterested in childrens’ drinking

PARENTS of children picked up drunk are making complaints about misconduct by gardaí while showing an alarming lack of interest in how their offspring got intoxicated, the head of the garda complaints board said yesterday.

And gardaí investigating the allegations appear to be doing nothing to ascertain where the underage youths are getting the drink and bringing the owner to court.

“We are coming across cases of underage people being found helpless drunk at 3am, and there seems to be no parental control or worry,” said Gordon Holmes, chairman of the Garda Síochána Complaints Board.

Mr Holmes said he was going to raise the issue in the board’s next annual report, due in the spring.

He said under the law, underage people cannot themselves make a complaint against a guard and must do so through their parents.

“The parents make a complaint, saying he was hit by a guard, but there’s no question where he got the drink from, from any side. It’s something they should be worried about.”

He said there were over 20 such complaints last year from parents, a figure which had grown over the years.

“The parents themselves are showing extraordinary lack of interest in the well-being of their child if they allow their child out till 2am getting drunk at the age of 14-15. Some of it is very frightening.”

Mr Holmes said he was also concerned at the inaction of gardaí chosen to investigate the allegation in relation to underage drinking.

“When we get the files, there is nothing in the file to suggest the guards did anything to find out where they got the drink.

“They could question the young fellow. Very often they are found outside nightclubs and things, so they know very well they got them inside. If they did, they must put that down as a suspect place.”

A garda spokesman declined to comment on the specific criticism, but pointed out that generally the force had placed a strong emphasis in recent years on combating underage drinking and identifying outlets involved in selling alcohol to minors.

“The Garda have been very concerned about underage drinking. Operation Encounter was introduced in February 2002 to deal with this and it can be seen from the figures the amount of activity in relation to these offences has been huge,” the spokesman said.

Most recent figures for Operation Encounter show that between February 2002 and August 2003, almost 1,800 cases of underage drinking were detected by gardaí. In addition, 650 pubs and nightclubs were caught selling or supplying alcohol to underage people.