President McAleese stated that Ireland's attitude to alcohol was "ridiculously unhealthy" and "sinister" and that "too many people make a connection between fun and alcohol, socialising and drugs". Prof David Shaffer of Columbia University told a conference in the Mater Hospital that the Government should raise the legal age at which alcohol can be purchased from 18 to 21 to curb the rate of youth suicides in the State. And the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform said a "sea change" was necessary in the Irish attitude to excessive drinking.
Over the past generation, under the guise of "student services", the sale and promotion of alcohol has been promoted in our universities and other third-level institutions to the point where some of them now boast facilities in the "super-pub" league. The college bar has now a status in student life which equates with, and often surpasses, that accorded to the lecture hall, the laboratory and the library. The target market of those bars is precisely that age cohort which Prof Shaffer considers to be most vulnerable.
I suggest that Mr McDowell could begin the necessary sea-change if he were to withdraw licences to sell alcohol from third-level colleges. This would serve as a wake-up call to the leaders of our society, both current and future, as to the role they play in making alcohol culture so widely acceptable and "cool" in Irish society.
I do not consider my proposal to be an infringement of student liberty; there are plenty of commercial outlets off-campus which are only too ready to fill the vacuum. The absence of alcohol might also encourage third-level campuses to focus on other important issues and services of more benefit to their students. - Yours, etc.,
TOM KELLY,
Newcastle,
Galway.
Madam, - I read with alarm Prof David Shaffer's suggestion that the legal drinking age be increased to 21. As a former resident of the United States I have been able to see at first hand the consequences of America's use of such a limit.
The first problem is that it creates confusion about when one actually reaches adulthood. A bizarre situation exists where an 18-year-old can join the military, become a parent, work as an independent firearms dealer, run for mayor or even be paid to fly aeroplanes full of tourists over cities, but is unable to legally obtain alcohol! The next problem is that such an age limit encourages binge drinking among students because their supply of alcohol is sporadic.
There are no social constraints on consumption because it is done secretly in small groups. Every year students die because of binge drinking - incidents which usually lead to surreal demands for the drinking age to be increased still further.
The biggest problem with a drinking age of 21 is that it impels young adults to search for alternatives to alcohol. Almost all illegal drugs are easier to sell and distribute than alcohol, simply because they take up less space and can be hidden. As a result, it is easier for people under the magic age to obtain hard drugs than to buy alcohol. Increasing the drinking age in Ireland would do nothing to combat alcohol abuse among the young, but would instead represent a huge marketing opportunity for drug dealers and organised crime.
Rather than importing someone else's solution we need to fix the flaws in our own. The emphasis needs to be on holding young people accountable for their behaviour, rather than telling them that they are immature and then being surprised when they act immaturely.
Instead of taking advice from America, a country whose track record in this area is simply appalling, we would be well advised to look at how these things are done in France. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID ROLFE,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.