Dr. Bobby Smyth:

Deputy Dooley asked about the position in France, which tends to work its way into this discussion fairly regularly. The French people and the French Government became very concerned about alcohol consumption levels in the 1980s. A complex multi-pronged strategy was introduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This included a ban on sponsorship and severe restrictions on advertising. Over the following four or five years, per capita consumption decreased by approximately 50%. The point made by the sporting organisations is that youth drinking, specifically, has increased slightly in France in recent years. If that is an indication of the inability of sponsorship curtailment to solve the drink problem, that should not come as news to anyone. It is a multifaceted problem. The escalation in drinking among young people in France is reflected across the Mediterranean. Perhaps youth culture is becoming more homogenised as a result of the influence of MTV, etc. It has been suggested that drunkenness among people in this age range has become more acceptable in Mediterranean countries than it used to be. That has nothing to do with sports sponsorship. The short-term impact of the French prohibition on sports sponsorship, as part of a broader suite of measures like those recommended in our substance misuse strategy, was to reduce consumption and, importantly, to reduce harm. We do not want people to drink less for the sake of it - we want to see fewer body bags, fewer suicides and fewer people in our emergency departments, psychiatric hospitals and prison cells.

Both Deputies asked how we propose to deal with the challenge of alcohol-related content. The French have laudably stood alone in Europe by insisting on restrictions, at significant costs to local organisations. When we watch Champions League matches from France, we do not see the Heineken logo. Similarly, the Heineken Cup is known as the H Cup in France. Ireland needs to decide whether it will wait for everyone else, or whether the problem is currently bad enough to justify showing some leadership on this issue as we did in the case of the smoking ban, when the world followed. We need to put these actions in place while advocating loudly and consistently at European level to get our colleagues in Europe to follow what we do. I understand that Norway is putting restrictions in place as we speak.