Thank you, Chairman for the invitation. I am very pleased to address the issues of young people's health because the emphasis universally, in the media and elsewhere, currently is on economics. The measure of any decent society should be the health of the nation and that is the context in which I wish to address this topic.
Looking at where young people are today - many members are young - Ireland is unique in that we have the largest youth population in Europe. Some 40% of our population is under 30 years of age. That is a very important statistic. Some 25% is under 18 years of age. We have the highest birth rate in Europe which means youth issues will not go away, certainly for the term of this Parliament.
Many young people today came of age, or were born, during the Celtic tiger years which means they may not have the same coping skills or resilience levels as many of the older generation. Young people are quite often adversely affected by welfare cutbacks, health cutbacks, education cutbacks and, in particular, cutbacks in youth community services. They struggle with stress, exams, parental pressure, money problems at home, increasing levels of sexualisation of young people, pressures from body image, parenting and family breakdowns, lack of facilities in the community and a lack of role models.
The unemployment ratio in regard to young people is disproportionate. Up to 30% of under 25s are unemployed and some statistics suggest that 40% of young men are unemployed. We know from our work with young men and mental health that young men are adversely affected by suicide levels. Emigration has returned with a bang.
Some 50% of people we surveyed say the future is bleak for young people. There is a general sense of fear, uncertainty, frustration, rising tension and rising anger. We recently saw young people turn to head shops and we see them turn to binge drinking. In the UK, we saw them turn to rioting. This is the context within which we must understand youth culture today.
Spunout.ie exists as a youth-friendly and predominantly online service which provides information, support and opportunities to young people. We provide 3,000 to 4,000 fact sheets on everything from mental health to sexual health to physical health, including alcohol and drugs. We provide opportunities for young people to publish their news, views and opinions so that we can keep our finger on the pulse with regard to where young are at, and better understand them. We provide online mechanisms for them to discuss, debate and interact with each other but also for us to signpost them towards help services.
Outside of our online work, we provide small grants of €250 to young people who come up with innovative social solutions to drug or alcohol problems or other pressing needs. We have launched an academy of activism which seeks to empower young people to take action and take control in their communities so that they do not necessarily need to rely on politicians or government to find solutions and can find solutions themselves.
We will launch a national youth summit which will bring together several hundred young people next month to engage and debate all the issues affecting them and also to engage with the presidential candidates.
We started life eight years ago following a multi-agency feasibility study that provided an evidence base for our work which said that young people were not turning to traditional services so much, that the role of parents and schools was not as dominant as it once was and that the Internet was a growing mechanism to reach young people. My motivation resulted from my coming from a small town and growing up with a sense of boredom and frustration and wanting opportunities to engage and make a positive difference and from going to college and being immersed in an alcohol culture, witnessing the drug culture and having first-hand experiences of what the real issues are for young people.
Coupled with my own experiences and the evidence base I went about setting up an NGO from my bedroom in Donegal when I was 23 years of age. For the past eight years I have built up that organisation to the point where we now have six full-time staff, several freelance and part-time staff and a national board of directors. We reach 600,000 unique visitors online each year, making us probably one of the most widely used youth initiatives in the country. We have won several awards, a HSE innovation award, a golden spider award and many others. Our organisation is very much at the cutting edge of understanding and connecting to where young people are at. We seek to work with them but not necessarily for them to enable them to have a voice and make a difference in their own way.
We have noticed that the drugs issue is not going away and is increasing to the point where drug use has become normalised. Young people are turning to drugs out of boredom, escapism, self-medication, fun, fear and peer pressure. We are particularly concerned at the rise in heroin use. We have just moved to a new office in Temple Bar. Every day we witness from our window on the top floor of that building an alley where, in recent days, eight heroin addicts were engaged in heroin misuse. That is something we have all noticed while walking around the city centre. Ireland is in the midst of a very serious heroin epidemic. I am not sure it has made sufficient headlines just yet but that is only a matter of course. Ireland ranks sixth highest in Europe for its use of heroin and has one of the highest drug mortality rates in Europe. Groups such as Merchants Quay Project, the Peter McVerry Trust, the SASSY Project and the Matt Talbot Adolescent Services in Cork are calling for help given that children from eight to 12 years are seeking supports and there is a waiting list of two months.
We have noticed an increase in Circuit Court convictions and the mainstreaming of cannabis use among young people. We are pleased to see that, increasingly, a link is being made between alcohol and drugs and alcohol as a drug within the national health strategy. Alcohol is very much a gateway drug towards other illegal drugs. In the past ten years there has been evidence of a 40% increase in alcohol consumption in Ireland. Alcohol related deaths have increased by 400% and public order offences have increased by 82%. The prevalence of off-licences has increased by 300% in a seven-year period. We are aware from a Eurobarometer survey that 50% of 15 to 16 year olds have been drunk within the past 12 months and that 47% of teenage girls and 42% of teenage boys have been binge drinking in the past month. It is interesting to note that binge drinking in respect of young girls is increasing. The average age for introduction to alcohol has decreased from the age of 16 to 14. We are aware that alcohol is related to death by suicide and its harm rates are also increasing.
It is clear from HSE statistics that alcohol is costing the Irish economy €3.7 billion per year, that is, €3,300 per month for every taxpayer in this country, an issue that merits further exploration by the Department of Finance if we are to address health and economics in an interconnected way. The drinks lobby - the alcohol companies - is targeting young people. Alcohol Action Ireland studies have shown that 50% of young people's top ten favourite advertisements are alcohol related. One in three 16 to 17 years olds have witnessed alcohol advertising via their social networks, whether it be Twitter or Facebook. There is evidence, therefore, to prove that alcohol companies are targeting young people and also that prices decrease substantially. On the whole, alcohol is not treated with sufficient seriousness in Irish culture.
What is the solution? We need more drug aftercare and out of prison treatment for addicts. There is a need to relate and connect with community groups as innovators and solvers within this area. We need to promote and advance the drugs court. We need to look at international evidence, particularly a recent report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which has categorically stated that the global war on drugs in recent decades has failed. It is not just that commission, which involves people like Kofi Annan, which has stated this. The former head of MI5 and the former head of the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK have also said that the war on drugs has failed.
If we look globally for alternatives, we can find many options. The Portuguese model might interest Ireland. I am not saying that we should emulate it, but it certainly warrants investigation, as the Portuguese have managed since 2001 to reverse a situation where they had one of the highest drug misuse problems. The drugs issue needs to be treated as a public health issue, rather than a criminal issue. We know that alcohol is a gateway towards drugs, so we need to tackle pricing issues. The World Health Organisation tells us that pricing determines availability and access. We need to empower educators, parents and communities to act as agents of change. We fundamentally need to have the determination to stand up to the drinks lobby once and for all. We know that the IRFU, the GAA and the FAI lobbied the new Government to ensure that there would be no ban on alcohol related advertising. We need to have political will and courage because this is about our children, and it needs to be taken just as seriously as the banking crisis.
Ultimately, we call for an inclusive process of empowering communities and listening to young people, but we also ask our political representatives to be bold, courageous and radical, because the problem warrants that.