West Cork publicans and off-licences have the highest number of convictions for selling alcohol to underage drinkers, closely followed by those in Mayo.

Forty nine convictions for selling drink to underage teenagers have been secured since April, according to statistics released by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue. Of those, 11 were in the west Cork area with 10 in Mayo.

There have however, been no convictions in Dublin which has the highest concentration of pubs and off-licences in the State.

There were seven in the Roscommon/Galway East area he told, Ms R≤is∅n Shortall (Lab, Dublin North West) in a written reply. Five convictions were made in Galway West with three each in Kerry and Longford/Westmeath, two each in Carlow/Kildare, Laois/Offaly and Waterford Kilkenny and one in Sligo/Leitrim, Tipperary, Louth/Meath and Cork North. Laws on the possession of cannabis as an illegal drug will not change, according to the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue.

He pointed out that the UK Government was awaiting advice from medical and scientific experts and no decision would be made until then.