The Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, is to seek agreement from the social partners that price increases for cigarettes and alcohol will be excluded from the consumer price index.
The increase in prices would be in response to under-age drinking and smoking. Increases in cigarettes and alcohol would impact on inflation, and the social partners would have to be consulted on taking the commodities out of the consumer price index, Mr Martin said.
He was speaking at the announcement of a poster and radio campaign to begin next week to raise awareness among adults who buy and supply alcohol to under-age drinkers. The campaign is the second phase of a National Alcohol Awareness Campaign by the Department of Health and Children.
The Minister also said he hoped a new code of practice would be in place by the autumn to regulate alcohol advertising. He was having discussions with the advertising industry and those who advertise regarding the new code.
"If we don't get a tighter adherence to the new voluntary guidelines we may have to fall back on legislation," he said.
One television advertisement about alcohol had been withdrawn, the Minister said.
The latest phase of the campaign would target the culture of acceptance of alcohol as harmless and the tolerance that led people to collude with under-age drinking. "That collusion often starts at home, and consequently parents have a major role to play," he said.
The effectiveness of the alcohol-awareness campaign was difficult to assess, given it had started only in February. "We need to do more. We are not achieving what we need to achieve," he said.
Young people in the Republic rated among the highest in Europe for alcohol abuse, he said. If a person began drinking before the age of 15, they were four times more likely to develop a dependency on alcohol than someone who started at 21. "Alcohol abuse is the biggest drug problem in Ireland. It starts young and it can be prevented," Mr Martin said.
Strangers who were approached by teenagers to buy alcohol also needed to be aware of their role. "We have got to get across to people that they are doing teenagers no favours when they agree to buy them drink," Mr Martin said.
Older siblings of young teenagers and friends needed to be made aware of the damaging effects of buying alcohol for under-age drinkers, he added.
The campaign is also to focus on suppliers of alcohol such as pubs, off-licences, supermarkets and hotels.
Mr Martin said he was satisfied with the quality of curriculum in schools relating to alcohol abuse education. Two specific programmes, "Walk Tall" and "On My Own Two Feet", dealt with the issue.
Enforcement of legislation to prohibit the sale of alcohol to under-age drinkers was an important part of deterrence, he said. He was examining ways to support organisations involved in alcohol abstinence, as a key factor was to delay the age at which people started drinking.
Insp Michael Jackson of the Garda National Juvenile Office said enforcing laws regarding the sale of alcohol to young people was difficult. "If a young person is caught with drink they won't necessarily tell you where they got it," he said. Legislation on prosecuting premises for selling drink to under-age people, which had resulted in 58 prosecutions so far, helped the Garda address the issue, he said.
He added that the campaign to get young people to carry identity cards was proving effective, with 30,000 carrying the cards to date.