A third of 15 to 17-year-olds who took part in a health behaviour survey said they had been "really drunk" at least once in the month before they were surveyed.
And 24 per cent of 15 to 17-year-olds reported being current smokers. However, this was down from 29 per cent in 2002.
The Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study 2006surveyed 13,700 pupils in 330 schools, and found that 47 per cent of 15 to 17-year-olds had had an alcoholic drink in the 30 days before they were surveyed and 55 per cent said yes when they were asked if they had ever been "really drunk".
The study, undertaken for the Department of Health and Children by the Health Promotion Research Centre, NUI Galway, did find an increase in the number of children aged 10 to 17 who reported never having had alcohol.
The figure was up from 40 per cent in 2002 to 47 per cent last year. More girls reported not having alcohol, 52 per cent, while 43 per cent of boys said they never drank.
Some 15 per cent of all those surveyed, from 10 to 17 years old, said they were current smokers, with 24 per cent smoking in the 15 to 17 group. And more girls reported being smokers in the oldest age group: 27 per cent compared to 21 per cent of boys.
Public health specialist and former member of the Government's taskforce on alcohol, Dr Joe Barry, called on the Government to introduce a watershed ban on the advertising of alcohol on television immediately.
Dr Barry said that such a ban was included in the Fianna Fáil manifesto and would be quick and easy to introduce. "This could be done immediately if there was the political will," he said.
"We cannot continue with the unrestricted marketing of alcohol."
He said that the increase in the number of those who never had alcohol in the 10 to 17-year-old category was not something to get too pleased about.
"It is good news from a very bad base," he said.
"The Government needs to introduce legislation to tackle the marketing of alcohol and its sponsorship of sports and other events."
Minister for Health Promotion and Food Safety, Pat the Cope Gallagher, who launched yesterday's survey, said that although some of the survey's findings were encouraging, there were some worrying attitudes to alcohol among young people.
"Research shows that a young person who commences drinking before the age of 15 is four times more likely to have problems associated with alcohol in adulthood," he said. "Therefore, we need to make particular efforts to protect our young people and to delay them taking their first alcoholic drink for as long as possible."
