Mr. John Delaney:

Deputy Ellis is familiar with the late night leagues we have organised in the Finglas area and his point in that respect is a fair one. The three points I would make is that if such sponsorship was cut we would not be able to run those programmes as well as we do. As a result of that, there would be more crime, a higher level of obesity and more difficulties in communities, of that there is no question. The Deputy asked about the clubs and he was dead on in what he said. We have 2,600 clubs and many of those would be sponsored by local pubs. It is becoming tougher for clubs to survive in terms of funding through the sale of lottery tickets and other such sales. We receive requests weekly and monthly to assist them. If a club did not have a local bar as a sponsor it would diminish its ability to operate. That is a simple fact.

Mr. Browne has given some funding figures. We hosted the Europa League final here a few years ago but the one on which we are now focused is Euro 2020 which will be hosted in 13 cities. Our board has decided to be one of the applicants to host it and I think we have a decent chance of securing that although it will be difficult. I am on the committee in Europe that decides on the criteria that will apply and one of the models the committee is examining is what local sponsorship would be brought in, in other words, what return from that would go to UEFA. Not being able to have a beverage sponsor would be disastrous in that regard.