Sixty-one per cent of boys and 52 per cent of girls between the ages of 15 and 17 have experience of drinking alcohol, according to a July 2000 World Health Organisation survey on the health behaviour of European schoolchildren.

If teachers are a reliable guide, then the situation in Ireland involving younger children is at least as disturbing. Teachers believe that more than 60 per cent of pupils between the ages of 13 and 15 have experimented with alcohol, and that the problem of underage drinking has worsened over the last five years, according to the results of a Teachers Union of Ireland survey released recently. The TUI surveyed teachers in 277 second-level schools around the State.

Peer pressure was cited by 95 per cent of the teachers involved in the survey as the main reason that teenagers drink, and the majority of teachers said they believed the introduction of a compulsory identification card scheme would be the most effective way to deal with the problem.

So far this year, there have been 463 cases in the State of minors found drunk on the street. In 1999 there were 760 recorded cases of public intoxication of children. A new "National Age Card" was launched in early September in an effort to tackle underage drinking, and to date the Garda Siochana has issued around 15,000 cards.

Statistics such as these only scratch the surface of what's going on among Irish teenagers. Young Irish kids are drinking and taking drugs on a regular basis - in pubs, parks and at parties. Those official figures for minors found drunk on the street only highlight those few cases of kids who are drunk enough to get caught and sanctioned. "The stupid ones" is how their peers refer to them.