Parents warned on alcohol abuse

Parents were facilitating young people's misuse of alcohol "by providing products and events", the Minister of State with responsibility for primary care said today.

Róisín Shorthall, speaking at a conference on alcohol and crime, said parents needed “to consider their own ambivalent attitude” to their children’s drinking.

The conference also heard almost 60 per cent of people had been intimidated, frightened or physically assaulted as a result of someone else’s drinking.

Ms Shorthall said in discussions with groups, she “very often” heard how parents themselves were serving and providing alcohol to young people.

The conference heard it was against the law to serve alcohol to an underage person in the home, unless with the “explicit permission” of their parents or guardian.

Many parents were “ambivalent” in their attitude to young people drinking, said Ms Shorthall. “They say: ’Well at least they aren’t taking drugs’. Parents need to lead by example not only in relation to their own drinking but also in facilitating young people abusing alcohol.”

Results were presented from a survey, conducted by Behaviour and Attitudes in September and based on interviews with 1,000 people over the age of 16. It found almost one in ten people had been assaulted or had a family member who had been assaulted by someone under the influence of alcohol.

Fiona Ryan, director of Alcohol Action Ireland, which commissioned the research and hosted the conference, said the survey focused on public order and street crime.

Some 45 per cent of people said they had gone out of their way to avoid drunk people in a public space, while 22 per cent had felt unsafe in a public space due to someone’s drinking. Some 20 per cent had been kept awake by drunk people outside their home, and 18 per cent had felt unsafe on public transport.

“Nine per cent, or one in 11 people surveyed said they or a family member had been assaulted by someone under the influence of alcohol. When they had been assaulted, 44 per cent said they did not report the assault, and 56 per cent said they had,” Ms Ryan said.

She said there seemed to be an “under-reporting of alcohol-related assault” and questioned whether people were minimising the seriousness of the incidents, concerned they themselves had been drinking or protecting someone who had been drinking. “There seems to be a high acceptance of alcohol related harm.”

Commenting on people being asked about their views on the introduction of minimum pricing per unit of alcohol, Ms Ryan said: “Our research finds 55 per cent of people in favour of it and 45 per cent against.”

Kathryn D’Arcy, director of the Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland, attended the conference though did not speak at it. Commenting after she said her members were fully in favour of measures to reduce alcohol abuse. She said alcohol consumption had “fallen dramatically” over the past two years.