Dr. Suzanne Crowe

And what they did was they built sports facilities.

And they made them free for young people.

So every small town had indoor, obviously, in Iceland and outdoor sports facilities.

And they dramatically reduced their binge drinking in young people.

I think that that was always the way, was that people were pilfering it from the drinks cabinet.

There's nothing new there.

But alcohol is very widely accepted, particularly in, well, in a lot of social groups.

And I have heard stories about, you know, parents turning a bit of a blind eye, hosting pre-drinks or a pranks party, even for quite young teenagers.

And even recently, a cocktail party.

Now, they were mocktails, but at the same time, it's introducing this idea that you can't have fun unless you're having some kind of a drink.

Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, the research doesn't really support that.

And because we have a very disordered type of drinking in this country that I think is quite different to France or Spain.

And a lot of the time parents will say, well, look, aren't French kind of kids having a small glass of wine when they're young?

Our pattern of drinking in Ireland is completely different.

And we have much higher rates of binge drinking at all ages now.

So I think as adults, we're modeling a different type of drinking anyway.

And then, as I say, the research shows that the younger you're exposed to alcohol, the younger you're consuming, the greater the health risks.

Yeah, and the detail is important and it is good news.

I mean, I don't think you can take away from the good news that on average, a lot of adults are drinking less, myself included.

But if you pick out the younger people, unfortunately, the trend is going the opposite direction.