Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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467. To ask the Minister for Health given the report published by Action Ireland sampling 700 schoolchildren from Dublin, Galway and Cork, and the findings that girls are now more likely to consume alcohol than boys, if he will commit to a multi-pronged approach, along with the Department of Education and Skills, to tackle the problem of under-age drinking; if he will follow the example of Finland and regulate online marketing aimed at this demographic, to improve general health of young persons and Ireland's bad relationship with alcohol. [42952/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Ireland has a significant alcohol problem which needs decisive and innovative action to address it. A broad range of complementary measures is required to successfully reduce consumption of and the harms associated with alcohol misuse especially amongst young people. The Steering Group Report on a National Substance Misuse Strategy, 2012contains recommendations which take a multi-pronged approach to tackling the misuse of alcohol, focusing on supply, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation and research.

The Government has approved an extensive package of measures to deal with alcohol misuse, based on the Report's recommendations, to be incorporated in a Public Health (Alcohol) Bill. The General Scheme of the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill was approved by Government on the 3 February 2015. The Scheme includes provisions for minimum unit pricing, health labelling on products that contain alcohol, restrictions on the advertising and marketing of alcohol and the regulation of sponsorship. The Department of Health is continuing to work on the preparation of the legislation. It is expected that the Bill will be published shortly.

The Public (Health) Alcohol Bill will make it illegal to market or advertise alcohol in a manner that is appealing to children. It provides for the making of regulations regarding the marketing and advertising of alcohol and includes provisions, inter alia, for restrictions on broadcast marketing and advertising, cinema advertising, outdoor advertising, print media and the regulation of sponsorship by alcohol companies. The provisions in relation to marketing and advertising will be reviewed after three years to gauge their effectiveness.

The other measures set out in the Steering Group Report on a National Substance Misuse Strategy, 2012,were endorsed by Government and are to be progressed by the relevant Departments and organisations. The Report recommends that the Social Personal and Health Education Programme (SPHE) in schools and Youthreach centres is continued and developed. The Department of Edcuation and Science is responsible for implementing this recommendation. The Department of Education and Science conducted a thematic evaluation of teaching and learning in SPHE. They reported that 98% of the schools visited had a substance misuse policy (Looking at Social Personal and Health Education Teaching and Learning in Post Primary Schools, 2013). SPHE is mandatory in all primary schools and will also form part of the new mandatory 'Wellbeing' component of junior cycle in post primary schools.

The First Annual Report on the National Substance Misuse Strategy is due by the end of 2015. The report, which will be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas, will outline progress on the implementation of the recommendations in the Steering Group Report on the National Substance Misuse Strategy, the target for reduction in annual per capita consumption of pure alcohol, and the key performance indicators recommended in the Steering Group report.