Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegation for its presentations. Legislation and regulation are about making it easy for people to do the right thing and making it difficult for people to do the wrong thing, as expressed by society, through legislators and based on available evidence. If any of us were to go to any of the sporting organisations and say they could replace what they are currently getting from the alcohol companies with A, B, C plus what they are getting we would not have this debate and the sporting organisations accept that. We talked about the sporting bodies at national level. At local level clubs would have difficulty in paying for insurance, transport and a kit unless the local pub sponsored them. It may not be a large amount of money but the sponsorship is crucial to the running of the under-eights, under 12s and under 16s teams. What are the alternatives? If they go to the banks, they will take the shirts off their back and will certainly not sponsor their kit. They do not have that many options. That is my first concern. To some extent that issue might be addressed through phasing in but we or somebody needs to identify alternative sources of financial support if the sports companies are to deliver the benefits that I see in my local community, particularly at under age level and in teenage teams.

Is there any research or data that identifies the level of alcohol abuse, the level of suicide or self harm attempts among young people who commenced drinking before the legal minimum age? In other words, are we failing to enforce existing legislation in this area? It is a frightening statistic that Irish adult drinkers still consume the equivalent of one bottle of whisky on average for every man and woman per week. I think it was Dr. Bobby Smith who gave that statistic. Is that a percentage of alcohol consumers or a percentage of adults over the age of 18 years?