Frightening numbers of children are being physically abused, and many under-18s are being sexually abused because of alcohol addiction, Bishop Donal McKeown (pictured) has said.

Speaking at the annual Mass for the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association on Sunday, Bishop McKeown pointed to statistics showing that “50,000 children get drunk every weekend in Ireland”.

Ireland had the highest percentage of heavy under age drinking in Europe, he continued.

“Figures I saw recently suggested that 25% of 15-16 years olds in this country get drunk at least three times a month,” Bishop McKeown added.

He said: “The actions of intoxicated adults and some young people’s own inability to have control of themselves would imply that many children are being physically, emotionally and sexually abused across this country on a daily basis – and especially at weekends.

“I am not scaremongering when I suggest that frightening numbers of children are being physically abused because of addiction and that many under 18s are being sexually exploited each weekend – often in the name of harmless freedom and craic.

“That is a national disgrace and we seem unable to acknowledge it.”

He said that, if the Church dared to speak out about this situation “there are those who will say we are exaggerating or that Church people are trying to deflect attention from the evils of the past”.

He continued: “To them I say that the price of repentance for the past is not silence about the present. Practising self-denial for the greater glory and consolation of the Sacred Heart, abstinence in an age of over-indulgence is a powerful and uncomfortable counter-cultural sign. You might not be popular for it – but never let yourself be ashamed of it.”

He pointed out that the Irish drinks market was estimated to be worth about €5bn per year.

“That means €100m per week is spent on intoxicating drinks,” Bishop McKeown said. “That is a huge part of our national budget.”

The problem of alcohol abuse was “the dark underbelly of the image of the happy carefree Irish who enjoy socialising”.

He continued: “Somebody pays the price and too often it is battered wives and abused children who pay the biggest toll. Too often it is our hospital and emergency staff, who have to pick up the pieces or defend themselves against intoxicated patients.

He added that the issue of child abuse “is a shame for us all”.

“But it would be great if the powerful who lead the new secular hierarchy in our country could accept that they too share responsibility, not just for righteously punishing offenders, but also for the addiction and crime of so many across our country – and learn the need for shared reparation because of the dangerous world that we have created for too many of young people,” he said.

He said that when the Church was powerful, “we were terribly blind to our sins”.

“Our new society is equally capable of culpable self-deceit today,” he pointed out.