Young drinkers swapping cans for slabs, says Lynch

Young people are drinking increasingly dangerous amounts of alcohol, junior health minister Kathleen Lynch warned yesterday as she called for a national conversation about excessive boozing.

She said young men were now dragging slabs of beer around estates in her constituency of Cork, while young women were also drinking more spirits.

Minimum pricing of alcohol could help control heaving boozing, she suggested, but changing attitudes towards drinking was the most difficult challenge.