`The level of drinking back as far as first year is incredible," says one guidance counsellor in a Dublin city centre school. "They drink before they go out, they get a bottle of vodka or gin and take a few slugs - more than a few slugs - and in second year it starts, and they drink a lot. The age they start is being pushed back all the time. In our day people didn't start before they left school. Now people are starting at 13 and 14. It's got something to do with the pub culture we have here."

After the publication in September of a European report on the level of teenage drinking and drug use, the telling statistics are now available to confirm this guidance counsellor's viewpoint. The survey of 16-year-olds in 26 countries across Europe found that Ireland is top of the league in terms of binge drinking (see panel).

According to the report, "the proportion of Irish students who had been drinking alcohol during the last 12 months is somewhat higher (87 per cent) than average for all countries (80 per cent). The proportion who answered that they had been drunk during the same period is also larger (66 per cent) compared with all countries (48 per cent)."

On a more local level, a survey by the North Eastern Health Board of adolescents between 13 and 19 years, presented to its members last month, found that 57 per cent of the young people they surveyed were regular drinkers - they had one or more drinks per week. "Adolescents tended to have binge drinking patterns with most alcohol being consumed on a Friday or Saturday night," the report deduced.

And, in case there is any doubt remaining, according to the Garda National Juvenile Office, "a significant rise in the number of offences relating to the purchase, possession and consumption of alcohol was responsible for the 21 per cent increase in the number of drink-related offences committed by juvenile offenders in 1996."

Earlier this year, Tom Kitt, Minister for Labour, Trade and Consumer Affairs, described alcopops as "insidious concoctions cynically aimed at the impressionability and vulnerability of youth. Three weeks ago he launched a code of practice aimed particularly at products such as fruit based and flavoured beverages or "alcopops" as well as beers, ciders, coolers and pre-mixers which, with subtle preparation, could appear appealing and fashionable to underage drinkers.

The code was the result of detailed negotiations between his Department and the Drinks Industry Group, which represents producers, importers and retailers. An independent arbitration panel has also been established to adjudicate on complaints from the public alleging breaches of the code. It will be chaired by former Garda Commissioner Eamon Doherty and will include Ann Woods, of the Consumers' Association of Ireland, and Michael Murphy, representing the Drinks Industry Group.

The code comes on foot of the annual report of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) which states that "anyone depicted in an alcohol advertisement should appear to be over 25 years of age and advertisements should not feature real or fictitious characters who are likely to appeal to persons under 18 in a way that would encourage them to drink . . . In view of public concern about the extent of alcohol consumption by young people and the incidence of alcoholism among teenagers, it is important that the industry does not target under-age drinkers."

During the year the ASAI upheld two complaints about alcoholic fruit drinks. One advertiser had used the descriptions "lemonade" and "orangeade" in breach of rules agreed in the industry. The second case was a newspaper promotion aimed at young students in which models featured appeared to be under 25. The ASAI found conflicts with the spirit of the Advertising and Sales Promotion Codes.

Some organisations believe that a more concerted preventative approach is needed. The National Youth Council (NYC), the co-ordinating body for voluntary youth organisations representing over 750,000 young people, says in its policy document published two weeks ago that there is too much emphasis on treatment and supply and not enough on prevention. "This is the most pressing issue affecting young people in Ireland today," it said.

"It's a very big issue for us," says Eamonn Waters, NYC spokesman. He believes that "the use of peer education as an approach should be encouraged, as well as appropriate and well-informed harm reduction strategies. You have your rogue publicans, you have the supply and the advertisements, but in the end of the day it's a demand for educational measures which has to be addressed. What we'd like to see is people developing their own personal skills and making informed decisions about alcohol. Educational measures are not seen as being as big a priority as the judicial end of it."

Waters points to the European survey finding that Irish 16-year-olds did not believe that drinking five pints or more two nights of the weekend did them any harm. "These are obviously uninformed people," he says.

A brochure about adolescent drinking from the National Parents' Council (Post Primary) says that "if children understand the unglamorous aspects of drinking (such as getting sick, behaving in a silly way), it may help them to deal with the `cool' image of drinking as projected by adults."

Young people are not the only ones who are uninformed. Many parents are still slow to "see what's happening right under the own noses," says one teacher. "It's not confined to low-income areas. It's quite widespread. It goes on. A lot of parents wouldn't be aware of it unless their youngsters are brought home drunk."

The new civic, social and political education (CSPE) programme, which is already in place in some schools on a pilot basis, does not include anything "specifically on drink, no, but teachers would be capable of doing it under the notion of rights and responsibilities," according to the programme's spokesman, Stephen McCarthy.

John Lahiff, national co-ordinator for the Irish Network for Health Promoting Schools, says that 40 schools - 20 primary and 20 second-level - across the country have a social, personal and health education (SPHE) programme in place. "Although many schools are working in that direction," he says, "there is no mandatory requirement on schools to provide this type of programme."

As to the Substance Abuse Prevention Programme, a total of 1,400 second-level teachers have had training in the On My Own Two Feet education package. Again there is no mandatory requirement on schools to provide this kind of programme.

What can we do?

The Department of Education's booklet, Substance Misuse Prevention, describes alcohol as the most widely misused drug in Ireland. "Government, local communities, community agencies, statutory bodies, church bodies, family, schools and youth services are included among those having an inter-linked responsibility for drug misuse prevention," it states. "The responsibility does not lie exclusively with any one of these."

In another booklet for parents, the Department poses a question about prevention. "What can we do?" it asks. "There is no simple answer to this. We do know, however, that drug misuse prevention cannot or should not be left to any one individual or organisation."