Mr. Ross Mac Mathúna:

I thank Deputies and Senators for their questions. There were probably three broad groups of questions. One was about sponsorship and advertising; one was about education, while one was related to labelling.

With regard to advertising, there is a large body of research and it is probably fair to say it is split, with a large body of evidence on each side. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the United States produced a special report for the US Congress on alcohol and health. It stated that when all of the studies were considered, the results of research on the effects of alcohol advertising were mixed and not conclusive. The balance of evidence in general does not support a direct causal relationship between overall alcohol marketing and drinking levels or harmful drinking patterns, whether chronic or episodic.

It is important to outline what the producers of alcohol do when they advertise. It is about trying to drive market share or trying to compete with the brands competing with each other. None of the brands markets to children. That is both forbidden-----