Two-thirds of Galway teens say parents ‘wouldn’t care’ if they drank as report shows rise in substance abuse
Galway teens are drinking more, sleeping less, and living in Ireland’s most underfunded region for youth wellbeing, a new Planet Youth report has warned.
Galway city councillors were presented in a special briefing with the latest Planet Youth report, which gathers data on young people’s health, wellbeing and lifestyle habits, including phone use, drugs, vaping and alcohol.
Planet Youth Program representative Emmett Major presented the 2024 data containing over 6,000 records from Galway, Roscommon, and Mayo.
The 2024 Galway City report covered 11 schools within the city boundary and drew responses from more than 800 teenagers who had completed their Junior Cycle earlier in the year. The study focuses on key areas affecting teenagers’ daily lives, including leisure time, school, parents and peer groups, and compares local findings with regional and national data.
Two key concerns in this report were substance abuse tolerance and insufficient sleeping patterns.
The report found that over half of pupils in Galway City do not get enough sleep at night, while 26pc said they were out past midnight at least once in the week before taking the questionnaire. The survey also examined these behaviours by gender and revealed a 13pc gap between male and female pupils - with 33pc of boys saying they had been out that late.
Councillors were particularly alarmed by the potential link between sleep deprivation and night-time phone use. According to the findings, 77pc of pupils keep their phone in their bedroom at night, and 37pc of students who use their phone for more than five hours a day report getting less than six hours of sleep.
Data also shows a collective decline in sleep sufficiency among both male and female students.
Substance use was another key section of the questionnaire, covering pupils’ experiences with alcohol, drugs, vaping and cannabis, as well as their relationships with family and peers.
When asked how they thought their parents or carers would react to them being drunk in the past 30 days, 66pc of pupils said their parents would not care.
The rate of drunkenness has risen by 2pc since the previous data set, with 28pc of pupils reporting being under the influence of alcohol in the past month.
Meanwhile, the daily vaping rate in Galway City has fallen by 5pc.
The report highlights that “adolescent alcohol use and drunkenness” remain the primary concern in the latest data, warning that a “societal tolerance” of substance abuse appears to be increasing.
Additionally, Planet Youth’s data shows continued growth in social media use over the past four surveys, raising questions about its connection to the 40pc of pupils who said they experience a feeling of rejection from friends or peers.
Since 2018, Planet Youth has collected four sets of data across the three counties - the largest geographical survey area in the country. However, Mr Major told councillors that it remains the least funded region nationwide.
Students aged 15 and 16 were asked to complete an extensive lifestyle questionnaire containing 80 primary questions and 388 sub-questions, examining more than 1,600 potential variables. The data aims to inform community development, research and public health initiatives, and is used to support funding applications, economic and community planning, academic publications and suicide prevention work.
The Planet Youth model is based on the Icelandic Prevention Model, a “ground-up, evidence-based” approach developed in partnership with regional researchers, local authorities, schools and young people. Iceland once had one of the highest youth substance abuse rates in Europe but now records among the lowest, following the model’s success.
Labour councillor Níall McNelis, who is a public representative on the Regional Drug Task Force, described the report as “second to none” for its comprehensive and practical data. Cllr McNelis also raised concerns over funding, noting that the project receives just €400,000, which must also cover data processing costs.
Mr Major said a major challenge is the lack of local services, which limits the availability of specific data needed for funding applications. This is a “cross-party” agenda, he added, that everyone should be involved and concerned with.
Councillors expressed support for using Galway as a pilot site for new youth wellbeing initiatives.
“This project belongs to everybody and that is why we are in the chamber today,” Mr Major told elected officials. “Everyone sees it as something they are responsible for because the young people are needed in this city.”
Labour councillor Helen Ogbu then looked ahead as talks of bringing an initiative to Galway persisted in the chamber saying that parents cannot be left behind.
“If we don’t have the parents supporting and assisting the children, it’s going to be a waste.”
Cllr Ogbu added she sees this as a perfect opportunity to introduce a mental health hub in the city that would provide educational support for those parents and a safe space for young people.