Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not a member of the joint committee, but I am particularly pleased to be present, not least because of the subject matter but also to welcome Mr. Ian O'Sullivan and Ms Eimear Murphy. As indicated by my constituency colleague, Deputy Michael Moynihan, it is a particular honour for us in the constituency to have the BT Young Scientist winners coming from Coláiste Treasa in Kanturk. I salute the achievements of Mr. O'Sullivan and Ms Murphy, their families and school.

As legislators, we are preoccupied with changing the law, but what jumps off the page for me is the fact that changing the law would be relatively easy. The ingrained nature of alcohol abuse has become a cultural norm and it is much more difficult to change human patterns of behaviour. We can ban advertising and deal with the issue of cost, but we have a societal issue to which we must face up. In that context, we would like to think that when history is written, 2015 will be considered to have been a watershed year when the Government, society, academia and the medical profession moved and BT recognised something for the first time in many years.

For the first time in many years, the nature of the project that won the BT Young Scientist award was not technical, not one that scared the living daylights out of us; rather it was a social project that most of society could acknowledge and respond to by sitting up and taking notice of a problem that was a ticking time bomb. According to the final paragraph in the submission, it is costing us €3.7 billion. The culmination of everything I have outlined will ensure 2015 will be a watershed moment. However, changing the law is much easier than changing the cultural norms evident in the research.

Interestingly, the final paragraph reads:

Education campaigns were regularly favoured when tackling alcohol consumption. However, these campaigns have been shown to be ineffective.

Is this a criticism of the principle behind education campaigns? I am aware, as I am sure our guests' school community are, of the inclination to add to schools' responsibilities; for example, they must educate students about alcohol awareness, the importance of fitness, etc. Responsibility for solving all ills is dumped on schools, but is that the nature of how we try to inform younger people? Do our guests share my opinion that it is not that education does not have a role to play but that we must act at a much earlier age? At secondary school level it is probably too late. I am in favour of doing this in primary school and confronting fifth and sixth class children with graphic presentations showing the consequences of alcohol abuse. With due respect to the Pioneer movement which does excellent work, I am unsure whether its format - perhaps I have a dated perception of the movement - of highlighting the evils of alcohol abuse will change people. Instead, role models, be they sports people or reformed alcoholics, could confront young people with the reality of what it is like to be that person who suffers from alcohol abuse and show its impact on them personally, their families, communities, health, financial standing and relationships with their partners and children. It is not that education has failed, rather it is down to the way we have done it. I would be in favour of earlier and a more graphic confrontation of the issue in the education system.

I congratulate our guests. It is tremendous research that, in essence, summarises the problems we face. Changing the law would be the easy part; changing societal norms willl be much more challenging.