Minister for Education Mary Hanafin has warned of the dangers of secondary school students going abroad in groups for post-examination holidays, writes Michael O'Regan in Glenties.
Referring to a modern trend, Ms Hanafin said that in some cases there were 30, 40, 50 or 100 young people from Dublin schools heading off to locations such as Ibiza or Crete. "The peer pressure is enormous to go. But to what end? I have had parents tell me that they resisted it to the very end, eventually let them go. One came back assaulted," she added.
"Another young man told himself about how as soon as he got on the bus and heading to the accommodation from the airport, was told by the guide: 'be careful lads, do not go sleeping on the beach, there is a lot of male rape here'."
Ms Hanafin stressed that she was not referring to the case of Tara Whelan, from Co Waterford, who died in the bombing of a minibus in a Turkish holiday resort, and she expressed sympathy with her family.
Peer pressure had built up, she said. But by contrast, 12 young people from Blackrock College this year decided that they would go but would work in a South African township, while another group of Loreto girls was heading to India.
"So instead of the post-results' holiday, they are going to give their time voluntarily to do something for others," she added.
She said that if parents continued to support those young people, and be responsible with them, then attitudes could be changed.
Ms Hanafin, who was replying to a series of talks by members of Donegal Youth Council at the MacGill Summer School, said that she was asking parents if their 17-year-old really needed a car.
"Do we really need a situation in some schools in Dublin where we are running out of car-parking spaces because the students are driving in? Do you really know when you are bringing your young person out at night where they are actually going?"
She recalled an instance where a friend who was a parent collected his daughter and her friends from a disco.
"The clothes his daughter wore going into the disco were not the clothes she was wearing coming out of the disco," said Ms Hanafin.
Ms Hanafin said parents should support their children and ensure they know they are there for them.
MacGill Summer School: page 7