A survey of 26 European countries shows that Irish 16-year-old students top the binge table. Ireland is ahead at 23 per cent when it comes to students who reported "binge drinking" three times or more in the month before the survey.

Joint second are Britain and Denmark at 22 per cent. Italy was next at 20 per cent. Binge drinking is defined as taking five drinks or more in a row. The 1995 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD), published last September, was carried out in Ireland in 80 schools in the first half of 1995. Students completed questionnaires, without supplying their names, in their classrooms in one sitting. The survey, funded by the Department of Health, was carried out by Dr Mark Morgan, a psychologist at St Patrick's College, Dublin. He surveyed almost 1,900 16-year-old students.

"While a lot of people have given a good deal of attention to illegal drugs," said Morgan, "it remains the case that the main problem in Europe is legal drugs like cigarettes and alcohol. This is especially so among teenagers in Ireland." The study was co-ordinated by the Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs and partly funded by the Council of Europe.

The survey involved 50,000 16-year-olds in the 26 countries. In many of the countries "a large majority" reported that they had drunk alcohol during the previous 30 days. Students were also asked what drinks they had taken. Ireland was high on the list of countries whose students drank beer three times or more in the previous month.

The largest proportions of those who drank beer were in Denmark at 44 per cent. Ireland came in at 34 per cent, the Czech Republic at 31 per cent, Cyprus at 34 per cent, Italy at 31 per cent and Malta at 28 per cent. A substantially higher proportion of boys reported beer drinking.

The drinking place most commonly reported by the Irish students was "at a bar or pub."

The survey found that, across the 26 countries, 80 per cent had taken alcoholic drink in the previous 12 months. The figure rose to 87 per cent for Irish students.

The proportion of all students surveyed who said that they had been drunk during the previous 12 months was 48 per cent - but the Irish figure under this heading was 66 per cent. The survey concluded that many students in Ireland, Iceland and Sweden reported frequent episodes of drunkenness.