Youth drinking in Ireland has attracted considerable attention over many decades. The data presented in this report is drawn from a number of national and international sources. It points to significant improvements in some respects including an increase in the average age at which young people start drinking and an improvement in Ireland’s position compared with EU averages. However, while drinking among young people declined from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, since 2015, that downward trend has reversed with consumption by 15-24 year-olds increasing from 66% in 2016 to 78% in 2025. What is also clear is that when drinking is initiated it is accompanied by high levels of particularly risky and hazardous consumption - 64% regularly binge drink and one in three young drinkers has an Alcohol Use Disorder.

In recent years a narrative has emerged that youth drinking is perhaps no longer an issue in Ireland. However, the data shows that youth alcohol consumption has surged in the last decade with little or no political or media scrutiny of this trend or its impact. 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 such as rising levels of alcohol-related hospitalisations among young people and half of young driver fatalities having an alcohol component...