THE absence of research on alcohol-related matters in the Republic was appalling, the head of the Dail committee hearing evidence on Licensing hours said yesterday.
The onus was on legislators to ensure that such research was conducted urgently to identify patterns of alcohol consumption across the population, Mr Charles Flanagan (FG) told a meeting of the Legislation and Security Committee.
"We don't have proper research on the relationship between road accidents and alcohol, nor any domestic research on the relationship between increased consumption and an extension of hours," he added.
Evidence before the committee borrowed heavily from international studies, he said. He hoped the committee could impress on the Minister for Health the need for appropriate research to assist members in reaching conclusions.
The committee heard yesterday from a health promotion expert.
Dr Ann Hope, of the department of health promotion at UCG, said most studies of changes in opening hours showed that consumption went up with increased availability and dropped with reduced hours.
There was strong and diverse evidence to support the contention that policies which influenced access to alcohol could make a significant contribution to the prevention of alcohol problems.
The fact that more youngsters were starting earlier to experiment with liquor was a matter of concern. Earlier onset of drinking was related to the emergence of alcohol-related problems down the road.
A Dublin study showed that among Junior Cert students - those aged around 15 - where there was usually a lot of anxiety each September, 47 per cent said they had been drunk in the previous 12 months, while almost 20 per cent admitted to having been inebriated on six or more occasions in that period. This was an especially worrying trend.
Mr John Brown (FG) asked if the study respondents were not just bragging. Could they have become drunk on just two drinks, he wondered. Under-age drinking was definitely a problem, but he was not sure he would be prepared to accept the word of a 15-year-old. Twenty per cent was an awful figure.
Dr Hope said the Dublin study, conducted in post-primary schools, had been borne out by other research on a State-wide basis.