Martin Daly: Planet Youth data reveals early risks for youth

Minister, I'd just like you to maybe just reflect on the Support for Planet Youth model, a model that covers about five different regions in the country, and it dwells on youth mental well-being and the maintenance of that well-being, and the repeated surveys of youth to find out what makes them tick. Anne Garth Mahle, Good Deputy, I'm taking this on behalf of Minister Myrnan O'Connor and she sends her apologies. I want to thank you for the interest in the prevention of drug use amongst young people in Ireland and for the opportunity to provide an update to the House on this very important work. As you will be aware, the Minister published the draft National Drug Strategy in early February. The successful strategy will seek to further the progress made under the previous drug strategy and emphasise the importance of effective and evidence-based drug prevention. Significant support is currently being provided for drug prevention. In 2023, a first-of-its-kind funding programme to support evidence-based drug prevention initiatives was launched, providing €1.5 million to date. This funding has supported five programmes and represents a significant step in developing our approach to drug prevention in Ireland. As you will be aware, the first strategic pillar in the draft strategy prioritises prevention. It will seek to protect individuals, children, families and communities from the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol use, and will contain several actions aimed at preventing the onset of drugs use amongst our citizens, with a particular focus on young people. Upon publication of the finalised strategy, these actions will provide targeted responses to groups who are faced with high levels of risk, such as children living with parental drug use, experiencing hidden harm. Any new initiatives on drug prevention going forward will be considered in the context of the finalised strategy, which will develop a coherent, coordinated and quality-based national drug prevention system. The health and wellbeing of all citizens is of vital importance, and reducing health risk factors for our young people is a priority for this Government. I will come back and speak about the Planet Youth in the next section. I am glad you recognise the value of the Planet Youth project, based on the Icelandic model of intervening early to try to identify the reasons why young people may fall into lifestyles that will be deleterious to their health. One of the reports that came out of Youth from Galway, Roscommon and Mayo in 2024 identified the fact that things such as unsupervised time for young people on the street gave them nine times the risk of smoking cannabis. If they are unsupervised in a friend's home, five times the risk of drinking at an early age. Other things that came out were that 18% of young people under the age of 13 had viewed pornography. These are really important pieces of data that allow us to target schemes at those young people and try to prevent them from getting into trouble. Thanks, Deputy. Planet Youth Ireland is an initiative to promote, as you said, wellbeing amongst our children and adolescents. It takes a ground-up approach whereby local regions enter into a process which researches local government agencies, the education sector and young people themselves. But Planet Youth is not an intervention but rather a data collection exercise which provides evidence to inform interventions. The Icelandic prevention model refers to efforts made in Iceland to address adolescent drugs and alcohol use. Iceland has invested significantly in professional parent councils and networks, so they have expanded it out. Officials from the Drugs Policy, Tobacco and Alcohol Control Unit and the Health and Wellbeing Unit met with representatives from Planet Youth Ireland and those engaged in Planet Youth across Ireland on 9 March in the department buildings. I suppose the value of having that repeated data collection means that you get an evolving picture of how things are on the ground. I know that in the Banasloe area, for example, if your parent had an alcohol problem, you are something like five times more likely to have taken alcohol by the age of 14. If your parents were permissive around the use of alcohol, you are at three times risk for having a problem with alcohol in later life. These are really important parameters that allow us to plan health services based around health and wellbeing and upstream so that we avoid the problems that develop in later life. With alcohol and drug abuse and obviously the viewing of pornography which leads to unsafe and sometimes dangerous practices for young children and adolescents, it allows us to intervene earlier with measures that will prevent future problems. So Planet Youth Ireland communicated that it intends to discontinue its links with Planet Youth as it was felt that the work done by Planet Youth could be done within Ireland for lower costs. So Planet Youth Ireland are separating themselves from Planet Youth while continuing to do the work. For example, a number of regular surveys capturing the information on youth drug and alcohol use patterns and risks and protective factors have taken place in Ireland. These include the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs every four years, with the last wave of findings being published in 2025. The Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children, which monitors the health behaviours, health outcomes, drug and alcohol use and social environments of school-aged children every four years, and the Growing Up in Ireland study which includes research regarding drug and alcohol use. So whereas the model is still being used, they have separation from the cost factor and they're investing the costs into drug prevention instead. Thank you.