Irish teenage girls the worst binge drinkers in Europe

IRISH teenage girls are still the biggest binge drinkers in Europe, a survey of 35 countries published yesterday revealed.

The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) found that 32% of them admitted to binge drinking in 2003.

Nearly one-third of Irish teenagers said they had been drunk 10 times or more that year ranking second in Europe after Denmark.

And the survey also found that Irish students had a higher-than-average prevalence of lifetime use of illicit drugs ranking second in a table of 35 countries. Irish teenagers are twice as likely to have used cannabis, the survey found.

However, Irish teenagers smoked 10% less cigarettes last year than they did in 1995.

Junior Health Minister Seán Power admitted that alcohol use and abuse among Irish adolescents "continues to be a major problem."

But he welcomed the findings on smoking. "One of the clearest outcomes in the study is that cigarette smoking has shown a substantial drop and the reduction is bigger among teenage girls than boys for some years," Minister Power said.

But Green Party Health spokesman Deputy John Gormley said the report showed the misuse of alcohol by teenagers is "a major problem."

And he called on the Government to ban the advertising of alcohol on television and immediately implement the recommendations of the Department of Health's Task Force on Alcohol published in September.

The ESPAD survey also showed that 32% of Irish teenage girls and 31% of boys admitted last year to binge drinking.

Ireland's position as the worst country for binge drinking remains unchanged since 1999.

The only other country where girls admitted to binge drinking more than boys was Britain, where 29% of boys and 26% of girls admitted to doing so.

But the delinquency problems experienced by Irish teenagers as a result of their binge-drinking is much higher than those in all the other countries,.

At least 10% of Irish teenage boys and girls said they had accidents or injuries as a result of their binge-drinking in comparison to the 6% European average.

Irish students also show a higher-than-average prevalence of lifetime use of illicit drugs ranking second in the table of 35 countries.