NIALL McINERNEY,
Madam, - I do not condone under-age drinking and I fully support tackling the problem. However, at 25, I would resent having to provide proof of my age every time I wish to buy an alcoholic drink, when the legal age to do so is a mere 18 years.
In any case, I am sceptical about the effectiveness of the Minister for Justice's proposal on these lines. The most common and dangerous instances of under-age drinking occur not in licensed premises, but in fields, parks and urban laneways (often with alcohol purchased by people above the legal age).
New laws that pay lip-service to solving the problem are not the way. Proper enforcement of the existing laws has never seriously been attempted and must surely be the first response. - Yours, etc.,
NIALL McINERNEY, Dal Riada, Portmarnock, Co Dublin.