The Church of Ireland has called for a ban on the advertising of alcopops and says the drinks industry should be responsible for monitoring what and how much young people drink.
It has called on parents to show greater interest in what children are doing outside the home and noted the success of staggered closing times for pubs and nightclubs in reducing anti-social behaviour.
Launching the church's Alcohol in the Life of Young People document in Dublin its primate Archbishop Robin Eames said "in the Republic there has been a 370 per cent increase in levels of intoxication in public places by underage drinkers since 1996".
He continued "35 per cent of sexually active teenagers cite alcohol as a factor in their engaging in sex. Sixty per cent of boys and 54 per cent of girls aged between 15 and 17 years of age admit to having been 'really drunk'. One in five cases of emergency admissions to Irish hospitals are alcohol related.
"In Northern Ireland the statistics are just as dramatic. Almost 80 per cent of teenagers surveyed claim to have consumed alcohol by the age of 16."
In the Republic and Northern Ireland the misuse of alcohol across the age-ranges contributes daily to road fatalities and injuries, anti-social behaviour on our streets, the breakdown of family relationships and the health and enjoyment of life," he said.
Describing the Alcohol in the Life of Young People document as "one of the most important church reports on young people for some time" he welcomed it as "a serious and balanced study" while emphasising it was "not age preaching to youth."
Alcohol was "an issue for the whole of society and, as well as looking at how we can educate young people about the effects of over-indulgence in alcohol, this report looks at how people in other countries are tackling the same issues," he said.
Prepared by the church's Social Justice and Theology Panel, the document also observed that "media campaigns aimed at young people to curb drinking in the USA, have consistently shown that they don't work an can actually be counterproductive." In all surveys young people had made it clear that what was needed was alternative places to spend their leisure hours, it said.
