Professor Joe Barry:

As Dr. Keenan said, the strategy is multifaceted. We have been asked to talk about this aspect of the issue today. We know what the alcohol industry's position will be. We are making our position known, just as the Department of Health has done. As the committee knows, all of this is being discussed in the hope that some sort of political position will be reached soon. Our position is that the process of phasing out the alcohol sponsorship of sports should be commenced. It is doable. Of course it will not sort out everything. The overall aim is to reduce consumption of and harm caused by alcohol by approximately 15%. If there are fewer people in trouble, there will be less pressure on the health service. We are not here because this is a trivial issue. It is a very serious issue. It is important to address marketing by encouraging the sporting bodies to seek funding from other avenues. I would like to refer to a suggestion that was made in one of the newspapers I mentioned. In Australia, it has been proposed that the taxes collected through excise duty on alcohol should be used to fill the gap. Of course we do not want the sporting bodies to struggle. Nobody is saying they should. We are saying we need to exert some pressure. Alcohol is causing harm. We have big problems. I remind Deputy Dooley that all the evidence is available on our website. It will help the members of the committee to make their decision on the basis of our material as well as what they have been told by the sporting bodies.