PARENTS ARE facilitating young people “misusing alcohol . . . by providing product and events”, the Minister of State for Primary Care has said.
Róisín Shortall, speaking at a conference on alcohol and crime yesterday, said parents needed “to consider their own ambivalent attitude” to their children’s drinking.
The conference heard almost 60 per cent of people had been intimidated, frightened or physically assaulted as a result of someone else’s drinking.
Ms Shortall said in discussions with various interested groups, she heard “very often” 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 parents or a guardian.
Many parents were “ambivalent” in their attitude to young people drinking, said Ms Shortall. “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 of a survey, conducted by Behaviour and Attitudes in September and based on interviews with 1,000 people over the age of 16, were presented.
It found almost one in 10 people had either been assaulted, or had a family member who had been, 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, and 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”.
She said there seemed to be an “under-reporting of alcohol-related assault”.
Ms Ryan asked whether people were minimising the seriousness of the incidents, concerned that they themselves had been drinking or protecting someone who had been drinking. There seems to be a high acceptance of alcohol-related harm.”
People were asked their views on the introduction of minimum pricing per unit of alcohol. “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, said her members were fully in favour of measures to reduce alcohol abuse. She said alcohol consumption had “fallen dramatically” over two years.
