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Introduction

In early 2001, a National Working Group on Alcohol Consumption in Higher

Education was convened at the University of Limerick with a view to

drawing up guidelines for policies aimed at the reduction of alcohol related

harm in third level colleges in Ireland.  Twenty colleges   all seven of the

country's universities and thirteen  institutes of technology   were

represented on the Working Group, which also consulted with the Union of

Students in Ireland and with the Social Aspects Committee of the Drinks

Industry Group.  The Working Group's report, Framework for Developing a

College Alcohol Policy, was launched by the Minister for Health and

Children in October 2001.  An initiative of this kind had been

recommended in the National Alcohol Policy   Ireland (1996) and was now

being attempted against the  background  of the dramatic increases in per

capita Irish alcohol consumption which had occurred throughout the 1990s.

Its necessity may be also argued from the findings of the College Lifestyle

and Attitudinal National (CLAN) Survey which accompany this present

report. 

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