Should parents be allowing their teenagers to drink at home, particularly over the Christmas period when they may want a glass of wine with dinner? Or could it lead to alcohol issues?
Harry McCann, editor of Trendster.ie, refers to World Health Organisation statistics which say that a greater proportion of 15-year-old girls in Ireland and the UK have been drunk at least twice in their lives than in any other European region.
He thinks that allowing teenagers to drink at home, in a controlled environment, would be "a good place to start" in promoting a healthier relationship with alcohol.
Con Cremin, director of Talbot Grove, thinks most young people learn about alcohol from adults: "The issue is how do we as adults manage our drinking? We have a relationship with alcohol that's feast or famine: we either don't drink, or we drink an awful lot when we do drink."
Brenda Power, columnist with the Irish Daily Mail and the Sunday Times, says the idea of letting teenagers drink at home would not work.
"I think it would be fantastic, but realistically we do not have the same historic relationship with alcohol as the continentals do, and that's not going to change anytime soon."
Eunan McKinney, Head of Communications and Advocacy with Alcohol Action Ireland, thinks it's a bad idea: "There's no real safe limit in relation to a child drinking alcohol."
"Children should have an alcohol-free childhood because ultimately, when they get to adulthood, they will be drinking twice as much."
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