Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation. They are right in saying that we are legislators and have a job to do in terms of bringing forward proposals. This is never easy. We have been presented with facts from Alcohol Action Ireland, but I am not overly taken by what has been presented. Perhaps the group can give us more backup data. We have also had presentations from the sporting organisations, but two of them made a lazy sort of assertion that life will not go on if they do not continue to receive this sponsorship. The GAA pretty much said that a ban on this sponsorship is not a deal breaker and it can survive.

The way I look at this is that we have a dreadful culture of abuse of alcohol. This is a cultural issue that existed before modern sport emerged in a televisual way and had more to do with an ancestral culture passed down from generation to generation. Perhaps we need to consider this. The sporting organisations made the point here when questioned on whether alcohol advertising had the potential to encourage the misuse of alcohol that it did not. They also felt that it did not encourage the increased consumption of alcohol. They made the point that the pie was so big and there were so many competitors for a slice of it, making sponsorship more about brand awareness and developing brand loyalty than about targeting or increasing the sale or consumption of alcohol. What is the group's view on that? Some people take a bland approach and see sponsorship and brand development as part of advertising.

If we are to proceed as Alcohol Action Ireland recommends, there is an issue with regard to the practical implications. One would have to consider how we could block content from other jurisdictions. We live in a very open world where the flow of content is televisual, on the Internet, on the phone and on the iPad etc. How can we prevent information presenting alcohol in a good light getting to young people? It is all very well that the alcohol companies will no longer sponsor the local soccer club, but young people already access content in a mobile way over which we do not have any control because it is sourced from jurisdictions outside of ours. Is Alcohol Action Ireland asking for something impossible in this regard? Will the group also comment on the situation in France where a ban was introduced and the consumption of alcohol rose? I see Dr. Smyth shaking his head and perhaps he can guide us on that.