The Government must take the lead in changing the "deep-rooted cultural dimension" of alcohol in the State, the chief executive of Barnardo's said yesterday.
Mr Owen Keenan was speaking after RTÉ's Prime Time special on alcohol in Ireland on Thursday night which showed a litany of alcohol-fuelled violence, disorder and injury on one Saturday night's drinking across the State.
Barnardo's Families Under the Influence Campaign including a new research report by Dr Shane Butler of Trinity College Dublin will be launched on December 16th.
"If we are to effectively address the problem of young people drinking, we also have to look at the centrality of alcohol in Irish life," he said.
Responding to the Prime Time special, Mr Stephen Rowen, director of the Rutland Centre in Dublin, said the State had a collective blind-spot about alcohol abuse and this is partly responsible for the "chaos and catastrophe" depicted in the report.
Mr Rowen said yesterday that the programme on Thursday night, which was watched by almost 600,000 people, illustrated how the alcohol problem had spiralled out of control.
"We have always had the attitude of 'that is the way we are and always have been'," he said, "but it is time to wake up to the changes that need to be made because the situation is getting worse by the week."
Among the measures Mr Rowen suggested to curb alcohol abuse were moves to prevent publicans from illegally serving alcohol to people who were already intoxicated. He said public order offences had more than doubled in recent years and that nightclub owners and publicans should be forced to take more responsibility for these incidents.
Responding to the documentary, the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children issued a statement saying alcohol and drugs were two of the biggest issues facing young people.
"Young people, because of their developmental, maturity, emotional and social needs are less able to handle drugs and alcohol and are more likely to be adversely affected by their usage," a spokesman for the ISPCC said.
The organisation is running a nationwide Drug and Alcohol Prevention Programme which includes a broad public awareness campaign. A simple "Say no to alcohol and drugs" message to young people was not effective, it said.
"It is imperative that an informative mature approach is taken to prevention which helps young people make informed choices around drugs and alcohol and helps the delay of first usage," the spokesman added.
Alcohol consumption has risen by about 50 per cent in the last decade. According to a report from NUI Galway, more women than men in the 18-24 age group are binge-drinking.
According to Ms Alison Begas, chief executive of the Dublin Well Woman Centres, seven out of 10 women who seek counselling for an unwanted pregnancy cite alcohol as a major factor in the conception.
The chief executive of the Irish Family Planning Association, Ms Catherine Heaney, said more and more women were seeking emergency contraception on Mondays and Saturdays.
Mr John White, the deputy general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, said teachers were increasingly conscious of the problems of alcohol among young people. "We see it in the tiredness and lethargy of students in class . . . it is a private matter for parents but most schools are trying to develop a policy on substance abuse and will be taking a more severe approach to the abuse of alcohol," he said.