爱尔兰青少年饮酒状况

What’s the real picture? September 2025 About us Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) is the national independent advocate for reducingalcohol harm. We campaign for the burden of alcohol harm to be lifted from theindividual, community and State, and have a strong track record in effectiveadvocacy, campaigning and policy research. Our work involves providing information on alcohol-related issues, creatingawareness of alcohol-related harm and offering policy solutions with thepotential to reduce that harm, with a particular emphasis on the implementationof the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018. Our overarching goal is to achieve areduction in consumption of alcohol and the consequent health and social harmswhich alcohol causes in society. Alcohol Action Ireland directors: Pat Cahill, former President ASTI (Company Secretary)AidanConnaughton, Chartered accountant, former partnerand head of risk,Grant ThorntonPaddy Creedon, Recovery AdvocateDr Eoin Fogarty, Consultant in Emergency and Retrieval MedicineMichael Foy, Head of Finance, Commission for Communications RegulationProf Jo-Hanna Ivers, Associate Professor, Addiction: Public Health & PrimaryCare, Trinity College DublinProf Frank Murray (Chair) Consultant in Hepatology & Gastroenterology.M.B., B.Ch. B.A.O., M.D., F.R.C.P.I., F.R.C.P. (Ed)Dr Mary T. O’Mahony, Consultant in Public Health Medicine & Medical Officerof Health, Department of Public Health, Public Health Area D (Cork & Kerry)Dr Catriona O'Toole, Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer Psychology ofEducation, Maynooth UniversityDr Bobby Smyth (Vice Chair), Consultant Child & Adolescent PsychiatristKathryn Walsh, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the National Youth Councilof Ireland . . . in focus . . .YOUTH DRINKINGYOUTH DRINKING While drinking among young people aged 15–24declined from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, since2015 that downward trend has been reversing. Alcohol consumption levels for young people aged15-24 increased from 66% in 2018 to 75% in 2024. The decline in consumption since the highs of the 2000swas driven by younger adolescents, particularly thoseunder 17 - who should not be drinking anyway Every year approximately 50,000 children startdrinking in Ireland. Starting to drink alcohol as achild, which is the norm rather than the exception inIreland, is a known risk factor for later dependency. Hazardous drinking, including binge drinking, iscommonplace (64%) among young people and one inthree young drinkers has an Alcohol Use Disorder. In 2019 young people in Ireland were, on average,16.6 years old when they have their first alcoholicdrink. In 2002 that number was 15.6 years. While young people are delaying alcohol initiation,once they begin drinking they consume alcohol abovethe national average (75% vs 73%) In 2016, 16% of all deaths in Europe among 15- to19-year-olds were attributable to alcohol, whilefor 20- to 24-year-olds, this figure was 23%. Summary Youth drinking in Ireland has attracted considerable attention over many decades.The data presented in this report is drawn from a number of national andinternational sources.It points to considerable improvements in some respectsincluding an increase in the average age at which young people start drinking andan improvement in Ireland’s position compared with EU averages. However, while drinking among young people declined from the mid-2000s to themid-2010s, since 2015, that downward trend has reversed with consumption by15-24 year-olds increasing from 66% in 2018 to 75% in 2024. What is also clear isthat when drinking is initiated it is accompanied by high levels of particularly riskyand hazardous consumption - 64% regularly binge drink and one in three youngdrinkers has an Alcohol Use Disorder. In recent years a narrative hasemerged that youth drinking isperhaps no longer an issue inIreland. However, a close analysis ofthe facts indicates that alcoholremains Ireland’s largest drugproblem both for young people andthe wider population, with significanthealth impacts such as rising levelsof alcohol-related hospitalisationsamong young people and half ofyoung driver fatalities having analcohol component.In recent years a narrative hasemerged that youth drinking isperhaps no longer an issue inIreland. However, a close analysis ofthe facts indicates that alcoholremains Ireland’s largest drugproblem both for young people andthe wider population, with significanthealth impacts such as rising levelsof alcohol-related hospitalisationsamong young people and half ofyoung driver fatalities having analcohol component. We've seen some evidence of a slight delay in onset of drinkingby Irish children but the pattern of drinking tends to be high-riskonce drinking does start. There is still a hard core of parents who insistthat providing alcohol to their 15- and 16-year-old children is a goodidea in spite of the evidence that it is in fact harmful, but the numberof parents who recognise the folly of this permissive approach isgrowing. T