Over half of teens who began drinking at 13 got their alcohol from home.
A new report by the Health Research Board found that home drinking has increased, particularly in households where children live.
New report by @DeirdreMongan & @amcdoyle HRB report Alcohol consumption, alcohol-related harm and alcohol policy in Ireland.https://t.co/mVtBfm9w4n pic.twitter.com/pFFledx5ED
— Drugs Library (@HRBdrugslibrary) April 15, 2021
Concern At Increase In Drinking At Home
The latest HRB report expressed concern at the 27% increase in alcohol consumption in households where children live.
It found that more than 80% of 13 year olds who said they drink received alcohol from their parents.
Head of Communications at Alcohol Action Eunan McKinney says children will push the boundaries with alcohol:
"When a child is introduced to alcohol by their parents, they take that level as the lower bar."
"They invariably will go higher when the parents aren't around."
But these parents in Dublin says an honest, more lenient approach to alcohol worked with their teens:
One woman says, "I prefer him to have a drink with me."
That's as opposed to "him drinking in a field."
Another woman says, "We never created a mystery around drink."
The 2020 data from Revenue highlights the level of alcohol use in Ireland and the exceptional shift of use into our homes e.g: wine sales are up 12%, a total of 103,630,416 litres.
This is also reflected in the 10.2% rise in alcohol imports for 2020; €1.014 billon. pic.twitter.com/hAga71jQ31— AlcoholActionIreland (@AlcoholIreland) March 12, 2021
Drinking At Home "Definitely" Affecting Families
Addiction Counsellor Andrew Fitzpatrick says there’s “no doubt” alcohol can negatively impact family relationships:
"It's more at home which is definitely affecting the family more, because the whole family is witnessing this."
The study found that the volume of alcohol consumed Irish people in 2019 equated to 40 bottles of vodka or 113 bottles of wine.
