The survey was carried out at the Young Social Innovators Conference in Galway by Fine Gael Senator Fidelma Healy Eames.

Over the course of a day, Senator Healy Eames surveyed 235 transition year students, aged 15-16, from nine counties in the west, midlands and south of the country.

The main reasons cited by respondents for drug-taking and drinking were peer pressure/image (38% for drugs, 43% for alcohol) and curiosity/rebellion (23% for drugs and 21% for alcohol). 

"One of the problems we have in Ireland is that policy decisions are often made, and resources allocated, without knowing why kids are attracted to drugs/binge drinking. For this reason, I carried out this survey which has returned valuable information that should be used when formulating policy. I will be bringing these findings to the attention of the Minister with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy.

"As can be seen from this survey, peer pressure/image is the most important reason why young people are attracted to drugs, followed closely by their desire to experiment (curiosity/ rebellion). Specifically, transition year students believed the main reason that young people are attracted to drugs is: ‘because their friends are’; ‘to show off’; ‘to be cool and glamorous’.

“This reason, plus ‘the desire to experiment’, are somewhat innate in this age group but are also harder to control by parents and significant adults. Thus, interventions such as peer-led, discussion-based initiatives need to be strongly considered at both school and youth group level.

“Nurturing positive peer role models and leaders is of critical importance. Equally, early career guidance is very important to address their third most prominent reason of 'being disillusioned', with 16% of students stating that they had 'no goals and no purpose in life'.

"The survey also threw up other interesting findings such as that cost and availability are not major factors in attracting transition year students to drugs and alcohol. Only 2% of respondents said that easy availability was the reason behind their attraction to drugs and this only rose slightly to 5% when referring to alcohol.

"This survey should contribute to the gap in information amongst this critical age group, who are now in the highest risk category (15-24 yrs) for those who have used drugs over the last year. I now want to see this information acted upon with achievable policies put in place to address this massive problem."