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JUST OVER FOUR in ten parents ‘binge drink’ at least once a month – with the majority of those drinking most often at home, according to a new survey.
The figures suggest that 42 per cent of parents consume five or more drinks in one sitting – the definition of a binge – once a month or more. Of those, 67 per cent said they drink most frequently in the home.
Meanwhile 86 per cent of under-18s interviewed said they drink alcohol, and one in five admit that drinking has affected their school or working lives. Underage male drinkers say they consume an average of 10 drinks on a normal night out.
The survey of 800 parents, young adults and minors was carried out by RTÉ’s Prime Time as part of a special report on alcohol to be broadcast tomorrow evening.
It also found that young adults consume an average of nine drinks on a “normal” night out, with 44 per cent drinking at least once a week.
One doctor at St James’s Hospital in Dublin told reporters that alcohol-related acute pancreatitis – which can be fatal – is now as common in the institution’s emergency department as appendicitis.
“There is a link between population consumption and alcohol related harm,” HSE public health specialist Professor Joe Barry told the programme. “We’re at the high end of Europe which is the highest in the world so we’re up there at the top of the world league.”
Drinkers are often unaware of the damage they are doing to themselves, according to another expert. Prof Aidan McCormick of the St Vincent’s Hospital Liver Unit said:
The people who come into us are very surprised that they are in a liver unit, they would not regard themselves as having an alcohol problem. They would typically say ‘I’ve never missed a day’s work.’
The Prime Time episode was commissioned to mark ten years since the landmark show Saturday Night Sunday Morning, which sparked a public debate about Ireland’s drinking culture.
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Go noonan, there is only one way you can satisfy electorate, burn senior bondholders or else loose all respect from us, If you back out.
He looks like a bull dog chewing a wasp, but I think hes the only one with any guts and backbone in the Government and that he has found his place in Finance. Burn ‘em Michael, look after Ireland before the EU currency! The EU will do everything it can to keep the Euro so tell ‘em we will burn them all, close the banks and open our own new bank not linked to EU based on Irish deposits and then see what they have to say about interet rates and corporation tax – tell ‘em will cut that too if they mention it again !
Could Ireland being getting a pair of liathroidi. About time.
Merkle and sarkozi (which my iPhone autocorrects to ‘warlock’ ha!) are so reluctant to burn the bondholders because most of them are French and German. It has everything to do with protecting their own patch and trying to get re-elected, and nothing to do with the good of Europe as a whole. We need to be part of Europe, but the cowtowing and grovelling needs to be over. The bondholders should have to carry their own pain, it was a failed investment. If they could reap the benefits, which they did, they should have to take the burden as well.
It’s like a poker game out there , and Noonan has the face and the balls to get us a better deal .who else would you send ,(he’s from Limerick )
Anyone explain how a Greek default would have consequences for Ireland?
Just wondering.
Putting more debt on top of more debt in Greece is solving nothing………and very bad financial advice…………I hope the people on the streets of Greece win….
The euro is a cobbled together currency and is doomed to failure,its only function is to keep Merkin and Kermit important in their own minds.
Several of the newspaper pundits forecast [ some six months ago ?] that the real crunch would come here in June/July when the fight to pay bills got too much and when the money borrowed from family and friends to avoid the shame of not paying the mortgage dried up.I think one writer gave advice on how to stuff the building society and keep the roof over ones head by using the courts ? Will we see this happen in the next few weeks?
have your say