Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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I apologise for not being here for the presentation. We had a debate in the Seanad on the ambulance service, which is used to bring people who have been drinking excessively to accident and emergency departments.

The winners of the Young Scientist exhibition this year did a project on alcohol consumption that involved interviewing parents and young people. The connection between the attitude of parents and the attitude of young people going out socialising was interesting. If we want to make any progress in this area we must start with parents, who will try to work with their children.

I am very concerned about another change I have seen take place. The area I represented on Cork City Council for a number of years was around University College Cork. When I first became a member of the city council I was aware that people went to the bars around UCC to drink, but people are now going into the supermarkets at 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock or 6 o'clock in the evening to buy alcohol to drink in their apartments. The big change is that one gets a measure of alcohol in a bar, but when one is drinking at home there is no measure, and people are drinking a lot more. I have seen people coming out of student apartment complexes at 11.30 at night intending to go into town. They are barely able to stand, yet they are going out to socialise further. How do we deal with the issue of measures, especially where college students are concerned?

That brings me to my final point. A member of my family was flying home from a holiday recently when a message came over the intercom asking for medical assistance for someone who appeared to be in difficulty. The person responded, to find that the person was experiencing delirium tremens, DTs. He had been drinking consistently for nine days and had drunk at least 14 units of alcohol per day or two full bottles of wine. The only reason the person was not drinking on the flight was that he had to drive home from the airport. The medical person said the only medical solution he could offer was for someone to give that person a drink to assist him temporarily, but the immediate response was that if he is given a drink he will be unable to drive home. That indicates that we have got the message across that people cannot drink and drive, yet we have not got the message across that there are health consequences to excessive drinking. We have not had full success in eliminating drink driving, but we have made a serious impact on it. Even heavy drinkers know they can no longer risk drinking and driving. It is not just about the danger of drinking and driving. We have not got the message across that if someone drinks excessively they are endangering their own lives. That is particularly the case if someone is drinking excessively for a long period. How do the witnesses believe we can work on getting across that message?