Alcohol Action Ireland press release, Thursday 18 September 2025
With September marking the return to student life for many young people, Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), the national independent advocate to reduce alcohol harm, has published a new and dial-moving report into youth drinking in Ireland, ‘Youth drinking in Ireland: What’s the real picture?’.
The report, which draws on data from national and international sources, points to considerable improvements in some respects including an increase in the average age at which young people start drinking and an improvement in Ireland’s position compared with EU averages.
However, while drinking among young people declined from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, since 2015 that downward trend has reversed with consumption by 15- to 24-year-olds increasing from 66% in 2018 to 75% in 2024. What is also clear is that when drinking is initiated it is accompanied by high levels of particularly risky and hazardous consumption – 64% regularly binge drink and one in three young drinkers has an Alcohol Use Disorder.
AAI CEO Dr Sheila Gilheany said: “In recent years a narrative has emerged that youth drinking is perhaps no longer an issue in Ireland. However, a close analysis of the facts indicates that alcohol remains Ireland’s largest drug problem both for young people and the wider population, with significant health impacts such as rising levels of alcohol-related hospitalisations among young people and tragically half of young driver fatalities having an alcohol component.
“It is the norm in Ireland for underage drinking, with 50,000 children starting to drink annually with consequent impact on their current and future health. This is not surprising given the saturation levels of alcohol marketing to which they are exposed, particularly online. Fundamentally, this is a breach of children’s rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“Alcohol is one of the most heavily marketed products with the annual spend on alcohol marketing conservatively estimated at €115m in Ireland alone. Alcohol is not a staple, it is not a necessary purchase, therefore a market must be created for it – and new drinkers must be recruited to create and expand that market. Young people are an important market for the alcohol industry in this regard.
“It is little wonder that Diageo, the multinational alcoholic beverage company, is the number four broadcast advertiser to children in Ireland. Furthermore, a lacuna in the law has allowed alcohol companies to use zero-alcohol products with identical branding to the master brand to circumvent the advertising restrictions in the Public Health (Alcohol) Act (2018) (PHAA).
“The role of alcohol marketing in encouraging, normalising and glamourising alcohol consumption among young people cannot be underestimated as a contributing factor to increasing levels of youth drinking. The international literature is clear – the greater the level of exposure to, or engagement with, alcohol marketing, the more likely young people are to drink alcohol.”
Some of the main findings in the report include:
- While drinking among young people aged 15–24 declined from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, since 2015 that downward trend has been reversing. Alcohol consumption levels for young people aged 15-24 increased from 66% in 2018 to 75% in 2024.
- The decline in consumption since the highs of the 2000s was driven by younger adolescents, particularly those under 17 – who should not be drinking anyway.
- In 2019 young people in Ireland were, on average, 16.6 years old when they had their first alcoholic drink. In 2002 that number was 15.6 years. However, while young people are delaying alcohol initiation, once they begin drinking they consume alcohol at a level above the national average (75% v 73%).
- Every year approximately 50,000 children start drinking in Ireland. Starting to drink alcohol as a child, which is the norm rather than the exception in Ireland, is a known risk factor for later dependency.
- Hazardous drinking, including binge drinking, is commonplace (64%) among young people and one in three young drinkers has an Alcohol Use Disorder.
- In 2016, 16% of all deaths in Europe among 15- to 19-year-olds were attributable to alcohol, while for 20- to 24-year-olds, this figure was 23%.
Dr Gilheany continued: “It is not inevitable that alcohol harm to youth and wider society should be experienced at high levels in Ireland. This report points to inexpensive, proven policy measures which can be taken to address these issues, including the full implementation of the PHAA and coherent approaches to alcohol across government such as increases in excise duties to keep pace with inflation and enforcement of existing legislation on drink driving and the supply of alcohol to children.
“The PHAA contains provisions to restrict alcohol advertising to young people. While these measures are helpful, they are no silver bullet for alcohol harm and fail to protect children and adolescents in the main space they inhabit – online.
“The genie is already out of the bottle when it comes digital alcohol marketing and young people. Young people are the heaviest users of social media, and alcohol marketers are exploiting the resulting opportunities with enormous energy, undermining conventional public health policies, approaches and tools for reducing population-level alcohol consumption. What is needed is acknowledgement of the issues and determined action to address them against the relentless pressure of the alcohol industry which profits hugely at the expense of our youth.”
Prof Bobby Smyth, Clinical Professor, Dept of Public Health & Primary Care, TCD said: “We’ve seen some evidence of a slight delay in onset of drinking by Irish children but the pattern of drinking tends to be high risk once drinking does start. There is still a hard core of parents who insist that providing alcohol to their 15- and 16-year-old children is a good idea in spite of the evidence that it is in fact harmful, but the number of parents who recognise the folly of this permissive approach is growing. The unrelenting exposure of children to alcohol advertising and sponsorship does though mean that parents who do the right thing are swimming against a tide of more negative influence.”
ENDS
