Young people are now buying slabs of beer instead of six- packs and are drinking, in some cases, as much as a bottle of spirits in a night, the MacGill Summer School heard.

The event heard there was a “potentially catastrophic epidemic” of problem drinking and that, in some cases, people were seeking help for depression when alcohol was the main cause of their difficulties.

Minister of State for Mental Health Kathleen Lynch told yesterday's session on mental health she believed "enormous strides" had been made in Ireland when it came to mental health.

“The fact that we are speaking about mental health so openly and in every context means that we have made progress,” she said.

But the event also heard that more than a million people in the country were concerned about the drinking habits of someone close to them.

The difference between the quantities of alcohol men and women drink was also being eroded because young women were drinking more, the summer school heard.

Housing estate

“Where I live, people pass my house going to a housing estate and it used to be the case that I would see young men coming up that hill with six or eight cans in a plastic bag, I now see them coming up with slabs,” Ms Lynch said.

Prof Ian Robertson, professor of psychology at Trinity College Dublin and visiting professor at University College London, said some 72 per cent of the Irish population know someone who drinks too much.

In the case of four out of 10 of those, the person they were concerned about was an immediate family member. This meant more than a million people were worried about the alcohol consumption of someone close to them, he said.

Prof Robertson urged everyone to lobby for what he called “this potentially catastrophic epidemic of problem drinking” to be nipped in the bud by effective public policy.

Drinking naggins

He said young people were drinking naggins of spirits followed by as many as 12 pints and then more alcohol in a single night – often up to a bottle of spirits a day. “People feel alcohol cheers them up and it kind of does . . . but in the long to medium term it increases depression enormously,

” he said.

He said the policy change the Government “couldn’t take”, however, was the banning of sponsorship of sports events by alcohol companies. The best way to improve mental health in Ireland would be for the Government to implement the recommendations of its steering group on a national substance misuse strategy for alcohol.

The session heard minimum pricing was likely to be introduced in a Bill in the autumn. Ms Lynch said she was taking an in-depth look at what we were getting for the money spent on mental health services. This also meant examining those who were delivering the services and the reporting structures in place.