Tackling teen drinking problem ‘must be priority’ as 13 to 17-year-olds say they drink every month

Alcohol Action Ireland has said the next government will have to prioritise tackling Ireland’s relationship with alcohol, after a new report revealed the extent of drinking among teenagers.

The report, ‘Alcohol Marketing and Young People’s Drinking Behaviour in Ireland’, found that half of all 13- to 17-year-olds said they drank every month and a third said they had engaged in binge drinking in the previous month. That includes a quarter of respondents aged 13 to 15.

The report, carried out by researchers at NUI Galway, also showed the extent to which marketing and advertising of alcohol permeates the lives of young people, whether through “indiscriminate” outdoor advertising or online marketing.

Three-quarters of teenagers surveyed said they had been exposed to alcohol marketing online, and the report stressed the link, highlighted in a number of international studies, between exposure of adolescents to alcohol advertising and the risk of problem drinking.

Dr Joe Barry, of Alcohol Action Ireland, said the current situation was “a disgrace”.

“The difficulty for us, in public health, is we get accused of being killjoys,” he said, “but it’s scandalous really, when you think about it.

“The norm is to be a drinker, but people do change. [The report’s findings] make a joke of regulation.”

Dr Barry said individual alcohol companies were powerful, and this had to be accepted, but he added: “I would expect our politicians to take it more seriously and they just don’t.”

The report makes a string of recommendations and Dr Barry said that while many had been made before, it was still up to Government to ensure they addressed the issues after the upcoming election.

“The public is much more ready for change,” he said.

The report, which was commissioned by Alcohol Action Ireland, will be launched today.

http://alcoholireland.ie/download/preview.pdf