'You drink to get drunk, that’s completely normal': Report shows increase in alcohol consumption among young people

A recovering alcoholic from Cork has said that as a teenager in Ireland, “you drink to get drunk, that’s completely normal”. His comments come as Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) publishes a report into youth drinking, which claims that progress is reversing.

Among the key findings in the report, which draws on data from national and international sources, is that while drinking among young people aged 15 to 24 declined from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, since 2015 that downward trend has been reversing. Alcohol consumption levels for young people aged 15 to 24 increased from 66% in 2018 to 75% in 2024.

Hazardous drinking is commonplace (64%) among young people, and one in three young drinkers has an alcohol use disorder.

In 2016, 16% of all deaths in Europe among 15- to 19-year-olds were attributable to alcohol, while for 20- to 24-year-olds, this figure was 23%.

Every year, approximately 50,000 children start drinking in Ireland, with an AAI spokesperson saying: “Starting to drink alcohol as a child, which is the norm rather than the exception in Ireland, is a known risk factor for later dependency.”

One young Cork man, who has been in recovery from alcoholism for several years, said that heavily drinking as a teenager was the norm: “Drinking culture in Ireland starts very young. The buzz of trying to get the drink and planning it and getting away with it was half the fun.

“You drink to get drunk, that’s completely normal. Most people kind of age out of it, but some people keep going — some people take that teenage drinking and run with it.”

He said that it was impossible to avoid advertisements for alcohol

“Now the ads will be for a zero beer, but it still says the beer name on the screen. They’ll show a really attractive scene, a beach somewhere or a beer garden and try to make you associate their beer with that glorious day, but you could have a glorious day without the beer.”

AAI CEO Sheila Gilheany said that in recent years a narrative has emerged that youth drinking is perhaps no longer an issue in Ireland.

“However, a close analysis of the facts indicates that alcohol remains Ireland’s largest drug problem both for young people and the wider population, with significant health impacts,” she said.

She added that underage drinking “is the norm in Ireland”, something she said was “not surprising” given the saturation levels of alcohol marketing to which young people are exposed, particularly online.”