Ms Suzanne Costello:

I am keen to add to what has been said. There have been some comments on the external environment and how we are all heavily influenced by it. One of the major influences is advertising. I do not want to bore people with a detailed examination of the codes, but I am keen to examine one aspect in particular, that is, audience profiling. This tenet of the existing voluntary code is inherently flawed and it is worth bearing with me on the matter.

In audience profiling a threshold is set for the number of under 18 year olds who can be exposed to alcohol advertising. It is rather limited in its ambition because it is set at 25%. The reason this is difficult is that the population structure in Ireland is somewhat different from that elsewhere. We have a larger number of children and young people. A high threshold allows many children to be exposed to alcohol advertising without breaching the code. For example, reference was made to a sports event with 600,000 viewers. It could feature alcohol advertising, even if the viewership included 150,000 children and young people. It should be borne in mind that babies and children under four years of years usually do not attend sports events and that children between the ages of five and 17 years account for 19.3% of the population over five years. Therefore, some 19.3% of the attendees at a well-attended sports event could be children, which means that we would be well below the threshold. It is virtually impossible, therefore, to breach the threshold for a sports event. That is one of the flaws in the existing audience profiling figure and why we are suggesting the threshold ought to be brought down to 10%, similar to the figure in other countries, in particular, New Zealand.

There was a discussion about the alcohol monitoring communications body. When it started, the idea was that there would be co-regulation, but in practice it is self-regulation. Reference was made to the codes of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland, to which Alcohol Action Ireland makes several complaints each year which largely are not upheld, but that could say more about us than it does about it. I figured it would be useful to bring forward a case report. We complained about a well-known alcohol brand. Committee members are probably familiar with the advertisement which involves a small furry squirrel making beer in a cute acorn cup. Within the code alcohol advertising is not supposed to appeal to children, but, generally, small furry animals appeal to children. We made the complaint on the basis of what was included in the code, as well as on the reaction of my colleague's three year old daughter who ran at the screen shouting, "Mummy, look at the squirrel." Our complaint was not upheld. The response of the advertiser was that the company took its commitment to market brands in a responsible way seriously. It claimed that the campaign did not appeal to children based on the appearance of the squirrel which has been deliberately designed to look old, grey, wizened and dishevelled. It also claimed that the animation was not cartoonish or Disney-like in nature but instead had a harder or older edge to it. The argument was that this had been done to ensure the squirrel did not look cute or appeal to children. The company stated the squirrel's character had been carefully crafted to appeal to adults, portraying it as crafty, experienced and nosy, not cute, comical or cartoonish. The correspondence continued at length about the dark setting and the music chosen. The company had chosen a Kaiser Chiefs song designed to appeal to adults rather than children and restated the audience profile of the band.

All of this is complete nonsense to me and really makes a mockery of regulation. It does not do justice to the advertising industry and certainly does not do anything to protect children from this exposure. That is why we believe so strongly in the need for an independent examination of the current codes which need to be strengthened. Of course, the monitoring body needs to include people from the industry because of their expertise, but this is a health matter. The regulations are to protect the health of children and young people. Moreover, it is useful to reflect on the fact that the Government is committed to a long-term health strategy, Healthy Ireland, to create an environment in which people's health and well-being, including their physical health and mental well-being, will be priorities. If the State is prioritising this issue, I imagine committee members should automatically see the relevance of these pieces and how they fit. To achieve the goals of Healthy Ireland, we must have the constituent pieces that are robust and meaningful, rather than continue with this set-up. I accept that the intent of advertisers may not be to target children, but that is the effect, particularly in cases such as the one I have outlined.