Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Much of the very valuable testimony we have heard would be very relevant to the health committee. The joint committee has a sports remit. In that regard, I want to touch on a question posed by Deputy O'Mahony. In the suite of recommendations what is the priority or urgency of the proposed phased ban on sponsorship? I have a concern. If sponsorship was to be phased out, the national sports bodies could easily fill the gap. Information and communications technology accounts for some €60 billion, or 35%, of total exports, but I rarely see the brands of companies in that sector in sports organisations. They are missing. The drinks industry has a very active advertising budget and uses its initiative on how it is spent. If a ban is phased in or imposed, the industry will not invest 40% of its advertising budget somewhere else. Drinks companies will advertise where young people are. One might see them advertising on games consoles. While advertising money may not come to sports organisations, it may go to sports personalities, subliminally.

Deputy O'Mahony touched on the club issue. I have not reached the lofty heights reached by the Deputy in the GAA, but I was an active club footballer and coach. When I started, it was tolerated to have a drink a few days before a championship match. Now, it would not be unusual for a club player to avoid alcohol and bars for three or four weeks before a game. In the national arena, however, one reads in the gossip columns about sports personalities who have been out for the night after a Premiership or FA Cup game, even though there is another game a week later. It becomes acceptable again. This is where we have a problem when it comes to sport. The national side will look after itself and the GAA seems to have a strong, different opinion. I have seen in the case of one club in County Kerry that it cost €30,000 to get to an all-Ireland final - to put jerseys on 30 guys to get them to the end of a championship campaign. Alcohol would not have been a feature of the lives of these 30 guys for eight months of that year.

The problem for the committee is how to make one policy fit all. I am concerned that the effort would slip sideways and that the advertising budgets of drinks companies would be spent in areas which were not as public or as well supervised and which might be even more threatening to the well-being of younger people. If the delegates have a view on this, I would be very interested to hear it.