Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this very important debate, probably one of the most important that we have had in this House in its short time or in the previous Seanad. We are talking about something that goes to the very heart and fabric of society. The Minister of State delivered an extremely good speech which was very good and crisp in its analysis. The reality is that we have had reports, recommendations, studies and task forces, but the problem has slipped out of control. We have an alcohol problem among young people that is of epidemic proportions.

Anybody who saw the "Prime Time" special programme a fortnight ago could not have been but appalled at what was shown on the television screen. It showed people being disgorged from night clubs in one mass exodus. The casualty units of different hospitals in Cork, Dublin and Tullamore were visited to see the strewn corpses of unconscious youngsters stoned out of their minds.

The Minister of State talked about attitude, in respect of which there is a problem. Nowadays it is accepted that when many young people decide what they will do for the weekend, they go out, not to have a social drink, but rather with the sole objective of getting stoned, drunk, intoxicated. It is a problem which we all must confront and cope with. Unless we cope with it as a matter of urgency, we will see a whole generation of young people with brain and liver damage and who are disco-deaf. They will be a liability on society, not to mention to themselves.

We are facing an alcohol problem of epidemic proportions which in the next five or ten years will leave us on a par with the AIDS epidemic in Africa. It is a major problem that is eating into the heart of society and has to be tackled. The "Prime Time" programme showed the manner in which services were put under strain with doctors and nurses having to meet ambulances at the door. They had to pump the young people out in order to get them up and mobile again. It graphically illustrates that it is most unfair on the accident and emergency services in hospitals that they have to cope with this problem. Genuinely sick people who arrive in having suffered heart attacks, strokes or as a result of a road traffic accident have to take their place at the back of the queue. We should seriously consider the proposal that if somebody arrives in such a state of self-inflicted intoxication, there should be a minimum charge of €100 for the service, irrespective of their medical card status.