Madam, - It is now confirmed (John Downes, The Irish Times December 18th) that underage drinking - and indeed binge drinking - among many Irish teenagers has reached alarming proportions.
The assertion by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children seven months ago that a ban on all alcohol advertising was "the only real course of action to take" now seems insufficient and well short of the required solution.
Its assumption that measures such as price controls on non-alcoholic drinks, banning sporting logos, curtailing new superpubs, reducing loud music while providing additional seating, along with calling on local authorities to prohibit alcohol misuse in "all public parks as a top national priority" will, I believe, have no effect on our drinking teenage population. The situation is heading out of control.
The most effective measure to ensure the elimination of an under-age and binge-drinking culture is to raise not only the price of drink, but the drinking age in public places including public houses, to 21. This is now the law in all states in the US.
Popular with some? Maybe not; but then neither was the smoking ban. Effective, yes. - Yours, etc.,
LIAM LAWLOR,
Raheen,
Limerick.