Accident and emergency wards are reporting a big increase in recent years in the number of injuries inflicted as a result of alcohol.
According to Dr Peter O'Connor, who has been an A&E consultant in the Mater Hospital for over 20 years, as many as 50 per cent of casualty admissions are for alcohol-related injuries.
"While during the day you might be saying `where's the drunk?', at night you'd be saying `where's the sober person?' " Mr Anthony Martin has been A&E consultant at the University College Hospital, Galway, for 13 years. It sees on average more than a 1,000 patients a week. "Over the last four to five years I've seen a big increase in the amount of injuries because of alcohol. Thursday is the big night, it's students' night out."
Mr Martin and Dr O'Connor agree more young people are coming through their wards with drink-related injuries. The festive season - labelled the "party syndrome" by Mater Hospital casualty staff - sees a major increase.
"Young people will come up from the country having spent £20 on a ticket for a gig at the Point and they'll have a bottle of vodka with them," says Dr O'Connor. "When they are not allowed to bring it in with them, they're not going to throw it away, instead they down the whole thing.
"These teenagers then spend the whole night on the floor of the Point, sick as a dog."
Mr Martin feels that pub closing times play a large part. "I have a huge problem with the licensing laws. The real problem is they're all being dumped out on the street at the same time. When you dump all the drunk people on to the street at the same time, violence ensues."
He believes the soft drink Red Bull, often used as a mixer, is aggravating the problem "because it allows them to function while they are drunk and they can keep drinking. Whereas before they would get drunk and fall down, now they're able to stand up and hit you."
Many of the serious injuries coming into A&Es are accidents which happen to people while they are drunk, according to Mr Martin. "A lot of people cut themselves on glass, some quite seriously, or they fall on the footpath, and we see quite a lot of permanent damage without them necessarily having been in a fight."
An accurate picture of the level of crime which is alcohol-related, is unavailable. Garda statistics on adult crimes do not single out drink-related offences or a link to alcohol. However, the most recent annual Garda report, for 1999, shows drink-related crimes to represent 10 per cent of juvenile offences.
Public drunkenness among young people has been steadily increasing since 1994, and shot up in 1999 by more than 20 per cent on the previous year; 6.4 per cent more drink-related juvenile offences were referred to the Garda Juvenile Unit in 1999. The adult crime figures show that 11,009 proceedings were taken for Intoxication in a Public Place in 1999, and 7,245 convictions were secured.
Mr Derek Barton, A&E consultant in James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown, says a blood alcohol test cannot be given without the patient's express consent.
"It wouldn't be done routinely. There's no quantifiable evidence available, so it's a very subjective thing."