Alcohol abuse is bringing Ireland to its knees
Last week, the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children heard that there had been a four-fold increase over the last five years in the number of women who had been so drunk they could not remember if they had been sexually assaulted.
Doctors told shocked politicians that between 15% and 25% of admissions to accident and emergency units were alcohol-related.
Young people were beginning to show signs of acute liver damage, as a result of binge drinking, the country's leading consultants said.
On Monday, experts highlighted the parallel increases in suicide and alcohol intake over recent decades.
And yesterday it emerged that gardaí had detected almost 80,000 separate offences directly linked with alcohol over the past year.
This corresponds to an average of 210 crimes taking place every night outside clubs, pubs and take-aways.
Operation Encounter paints an ugly picture of the scenes throughout the country's late-night venues.
It is one of regular public drunkenness, with threatening and abusive behaviour commonplace.
In some cases this escalates to public disorder, with drunken youths refusing to comply with garda directions.
In the worst cases, it can mean alcohol-fuelled assaults, often unprovoked and regularly nasty.
Figures from Operation Encounter show that at least eight serious assaults take place every night outside late-night venues.
Young people, particularly young men, are suffering severe injuries, sometimes resulting in coma, and in other cases death.
Young women are leaving themselves vulnerable to sexual attacks. Dr Mary Holohan, director of the sexual assault treatment unit at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, told the Oireachtas Committee that the levels of alcohol found in drunk women admitted to the unit were often so high they would normally be found only in dead people.
Later this week, representatives of the licensed drinks trade will give evidence to the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children.
Attention will also be focused on the Liquor Licensing Commission, which is due to publish its long-awaited report next week.
The commission is looking at under-age drinking and the sale of alcohol by pubs, clubs, off-licences and supermarkets.
Justice Minister Michael McDowell has promised measures to target youth drinking and public drunkenness.
These include a mandatory identity card for people under the age of 23, or possibly 25.
He also proposes to target special promotions, whereby drinks are sold at a reduced price once a cover charge is paid.
A Public Order Bill still working its way through the Dáil also proposes to give gardaí the power to seek closure orders in relation to badly-run licensed premises and fast-food outlets that are implicated in persistent late night brawls and drunken hooliganism.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
