REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A YOUNG PEOPLE’S FORUM ON ALCOHOL, ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A YOUNG PEOPLE’S FORUM ON ALCOHOL, ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN, THURSDAY, 29TH SEPTEMBER, 2005
Dia dhíbh a chairde go léir ’s fáílte chuig Áras an Uachtaráin tráthnona.
Good afternoon everybody.
You are all very welcome to Áras an Uachtaráin. My thanks to you all for being here and I would like to especially thank Minister of State Síle de Valera, Minister of State Brian Lenihan and Minister of State Tim O’Malley who welcomed the opportunity to join us here today to observe and listen to what, no doubt, will be very interesting proceedings considering the group gathered here and the issue that brings us here.
I am very heartened to see so many young people here, young people who have given serious consideration to the serious issue of alcohol use and abuse. We know that for those who overuse or abuse alcohol there are grave implications for their futures, the futures of their children, colleagues and community. We know because the evidence is all around us that as a society we have, to our shame, introduced our young people to a culture with an unhealthy attitude to alcohol consumption. Ireland’s teenagers are by far the most confident and the best-educated generation Ireland has ever produced. You are the problem-solvers of tomorrow and so today I ask you as representatives of Ireland’s young people for your insight, experience, opinion and views on this hoary old Irish chestnut which has afflicted every generation but threatens this one which has more freedom and more money than ever before and urgently needs to be armed with the information and determination which alone can break this stupid cycle.
Today, the Áras has transformed itself into a centre of talk and thought. We have nearly one hundred and twenty people meeting here to consider in a structured, but I hope comfortably informal way, the issue of abuse of alcohol by many of our young people. You are all very different people from each other, from diverse backgrounds with different life stories, and because of this you have much to share and impart to others. Your views matter so please, no matter how nervous you may feel, let us hear them, for we need to hear them. Each of you has a unique part of the jigsaw puzzle we need to put together to fully comprehend what it is we are dealing with, why its short-term attractions seem so often to overwhelm its awful long-term consequences.
This forum is an opportunity for you to advocate and discuss and articulate your ideas, the proposals which you believe will benefit young people in Ireland. It is an opportunity for you to have your voice heard.
The extent of the problem of alcohol abuse is serious. When we look at the figures, in the past ten years, alcohol-related illnesses have increased by 61% and incidents of alcohol poisoning by 90%. Of the increase in fatal house fires in the last year, half were connected to alcohol. In 2003, alcohol abuse cost the Irish economy over two and a half billion euros. And we know that other comparable countries do not share our problem. To pick one example, France, the home of wine - this is a country where only 5% of the people who have one drink, one glass, will go on to have 5 more glasses - the figure for Ireland is a huge 58%.
And alcohol we know carries very significant dangers. With increased consumption comes incontrovertible links to intensified damage to health, aggression and domestic chaos, suicide, crime, unemployment and poverty. Drinking during pregnancy can cause foetal alcohol syndrome with mental retardation, irreversible physical abnormalities and an increased risk of the child growing up to be an alcoholic. Just think of the tragedies for individuals, and for families, which that represents.
Psychologists tell us that it is part of the human condition that we look to similar others, people like ourselves to determine how we should act in given situations. Sometimes we call it peer pressure and it can operate for good or for bad. Who better to discuss and deliver the message about alcohol abuse to young people than young people themselves! The next generation does not have to repeat the mistakes of the last. The world of science has opened up insights to you about the massive extent of alcohol’s downside that other generations remained ignorant of and sometimes in denial of.
I have had the opportunity to meet many young Irish men and women these past eight years and my work before I came to the Áras was, for 25 years, as a university teacher, deeply involved in the lives in transition of young students. Those years have taught me to trust your considered judgement, to value it and to respect it. I want your lives to be the best they can be, to blossom as spontaneously as possible without being shut down by avoidable calamities. Alcohol abuse is an avoidable calamity and with your help it can, and hopefully will, be avoided by the concerted efforts of our people young and old. Thank you all for accepting my invitation to be here today, thanks to Fr. Peter McVerry our facilitator, the presenters from Moyne Community School, and the Cenacolo Community, our rapporteur Dan Hayden, the Civil Defence and the Áras staff.
Ireland needs champions who are not afraid to speak sensibly when the air is full of giddiness. There is a saying - if you want the crowd to follow you, don’t follow the crowd. I hope each of you will bring from today a passion for making your Ireland an exemplary place with an intelligent and healthy attitude to alcohol and a reputation for moderation in its consumption.
Go n-éirí go geal libh agus go raibh míle, míle maith agaibh.