Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegation for its concise contributions which were interesting. I am in favour of a total ban on sponsorship of any of the national sports by alcohol companies. Just as some people become dependent on alcohol, cocaine, hash, and so on, the drinks companies, very cleverly, have manoeuvred in the past 20 or 30 years into a situation where the major sporting bodies depend on them. I cited an example when the sporting bodies appeared before the committee. People ask where the sporting bodies will get their money from as if the only commercial operations in the country were alcohol companies. We all know they are not. We also know, or at least we should face up to the fact, that none of the other commercial operators can compete with the alcohol industry because they have more money. That is the reality.

The French Government was quite right to phase alcohol sponsorship out in 1991. It did so very cleverly. I heard some rubbish coming from the alcohol industry in relation to the French experience. These people should take a look at the report prepared two years after the ban, after the phasing out of sponsorship of the sports bodies by alcohol companies in France. I will give one example. There was a decline in domestic violence. These people never mention that. I represent a constituency which is almost exclusively working class. People stand up and say that the alcohol thing in Ireland is a cross-community issue. It affects all the community but it affects working class people much more. One has only to ask a primary school teacher in a working class community and he or she will tell one all about it.

The phrase "being in denial" was used. That alcoholics are in denial is true. There are more people than alcoholics in denial. Irish society is in denial. On the basis of the number of reports that came out of this House, most politicians are in denial. There are so many reports that one could actually build a barricade on Kildare Street, but none is ever acted upon. One of the glaring examples of the lack of courage among politicians to deal with the national drug - it is a gateway drug and not a soft drink - was when the controversy arose about head shops. I know nothing about head shops except what I read. I was not a member of this esteemed body when the head shops became an issue. There was such a flurry around here that within a matter of weeks the head shops were banned. I do not know how one can calculate the damage caused by head shops compared to what the national drug has cost over the years. It costs €3.4 billion every year in domestic violence, courts services, etc. There is an issue here that needs to be addressed.