Young Irish have one of highest rates of drunkenness.

Ireland has one of the highest rates of drunkenness among school students, according to the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs. Overall, however, alcohol use is lower than the European average and consumption is falling.

One in five Irish school students has tried cannabis, slightly above the European average, and 10 per cent have tried an illegal drug other than cannabis. Inhalant abuse is above average, at 15 per cent, considerably higher than the European average of 9 per cent. Irish teenagers are less likely to use tranquillisers or sedatives than their European counterparts.

The survey shows the vast majority of European 15-16-year-olds had drunk alcohol in the previous 12 months, at 82 per cent; in some countries – not Ireland – the sale of some alcoholic drinks to 16-year-olds is not illegal. The Irish figure of 78 per cent compares to 88 per cent when the same survey was carried out in 1995.

The equivalent rate in the UK was 88 per cent in the latest survey and a high of 93 per cent was recorded in the Isle of Man. Almost 90 per cent of young people in Europe said they had tried alcohol at least once.

Some 47 per cent of Irish teens reported being drunk, compared to an average of 39 per cent. The intoxication rate in the UK was the highest in Europe, at 57 per cent. The UK also recorded the highest rates of binge-drinking, but Irish students were not asked questions on this topic. Drunkenness was defined as staggering when walking, slurred speech or throwing up.

Rates of drinking across Europe are roughly the same for boys and girls, but boys tend to drink greater quantities. Cannabis use has fallen among Irish boys, to the extent that more girls than boys now consume the drug.

Overall, the report finds a fall in smoking rates across the continent, but little change in alcohol consumption since the previous survey was carried out four years earlier. Binge-drinking is on the increase in Europe, though no figures were compiled for Ireland. The use of illegal drugs is still dominated by cannabis but overall illegal drug use among young people has stopped rising.

The report finds no obvious geographical pattern for smoking in Europe, though central and eastern states were more likely to have higher rates. Smoking generally is in slight decline since previous surveys of young people were carried out.

The number of alcohol-related discharges from Irish hospitals of under-18s peaked at over 670 in 2001 but has declined slightly since, according to figures presented at a European Commission seminar last month. Over 95,000 adult men and 53,000 women died from liver cirrhosis in Europe in 2002, and most of these deaths were of people aged 20-64 years, the seminar also heard.

47% 

of Irish young people were drunk in the last 12 months

78% 

had tried alcohol in the last year

20% 

have tried cannabis and 10 per cent have tried another illegal drug

Source: Paul Cullent, The Irish Times, 16/04/2010