Night of celebrations sees lots of underage drinking but little trouble

GARDAÍ reported a relatively quiet night on Wednesday as thousands of Junior Cert students across the country celebrated receiving their results.

Cities and towns witnessed chaotic scenes as teenage revellers reclaimed the streets with worrying scenes of mass underage drinking.

Despite this, just two Garda stations contacted by the Irish Examiner yesterday reported public order offences out of a sample of 25.

Some stations refused to reveal statistics, including Limerick and Tallaght Garda stations, while Killarney and Waterford reported no offences.

In Cork, gardaí arrested eight teenagers for “general drunken behaviour”, three in the city centre and five in the Mayfield area of the city.

In other cities across the country, including Waterford, no problems were reported.

Accident and emergency units also reported a quiet night with “no more than usual” visitors arriving at the accident and emergency department at Cork University Hospital.

Minister for Health Promotion and Food Safety Pat Gallagher acknowledged that underage drinking is becoming a huge problem.

“We know from recently published research that about half the children between the ages of 15 to 17 report to be current drinkers and just over a third report to have been ‘really drunk’ in the last 30 days. At the same time it is illegal for someone under the age of 18 to purchase alcohol.

“Yet children under the age of 18 appear to have little difficulty in accessing alcohol.”

“I am calling on people not to buy or supply alcohol for anyone underage.

“We cannot be complacent about the potential short-term and longer-term risks involved,” said the minister.

The European School survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs ranks Ireland as the highest among 35 European countries in terms of the number of adolescents who regularly binge drink.