Vol. 541 No. 4
156 Mr. G. Reynolds asked the Minister for Education and Science the discussions he has had with management in third level colleges regarding the drink culture in third level campuses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22937/01]
While I have not had direct discussions with the management of third level institutions, there has been considerable progress towards the development of college alcohol policies.
A joint working group of the Council of Directors of Institutes of Technology and the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities was established in 1999 to examine alcohol consumption and to liaise directly with the drinks companies. The work of this group led to the establishment of the national working group which was set up to formulate a framework for college alcohol policy in higher education and to facilitate research being undertaken by the University of Limerick and funded by the Higher Education Authority.
The national working group operates under the guidance of the Department of Health and Children and has representatives from the universities, institutes of technology and the Union of Students of Ireland. Individual working groups have also been established in each institution supplementing existing work, which many of them have done on this issue. The results of the national working group's deliberations are being made publicly available and a "Framework For Developing A College Alcohol Policy" is being launched by my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children.
Furthermore, each of the universities will be launching individual alcohol awareness campaigns later this month, which will complement the national alcohol awareness campaign by the Department of Health and Children which targets young people generally.
