Irish worst binge drinkers in Europe, says official EU survey

A survey released today shows that 19% of Irish people admit to binge drinking; the highest in the EU.

Although over nine in ten Irish people know alcohol can cause depression and is also strongly linked to problems like heart and liver disease, alcohol abuse is a continuing trend.

The Eurobarometer research looks at people's attitudes towards alcohol across the EU and classified binge drinking as the consumption of 5-6 drinks in one day.

Commenting on the findings, Martin Territt Director of the European Commission Representation in Ireland said: "We know that drinking cultures differ across Europe, but worryingly the Eurobarometer shows that in Ireland people are still binge drinking and are not responding to the fact that alcohol is the third biggest cause of premature death in the EU."

"Since 2006 the European Commission has been working with National Governments and NGOs to find ways of reducing this destructive habit and fighting associated problems like drink-driving and violence. We have had some success but people's habits are not changing fast enough."

On the question of frequency of alcohol consumption, of those who drink, 36% in Ireland said they only do so once a week and a further 27% said they do so 2-3 times a week.

Only 3% of Irish respondents said they drink daily. By contrast 43% of Portuguese said they drank daily as opposed to the Swedes where only 1% drank daily. The European average is 14%.

On the question of abstention, 24% of Irish respondents answered that they had not had an alcoholic drink in the last 12 months. The abstention rate is ahead of countries like the UK (19%), the Czech Republic (18%) and Denmark (7%).