Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I broadly support what Deputy O'Reilly is doing. A lot of effort has been put into curbing alcohol advertising in the real world, on television and on radio but 50% of advertising spend in Ireland is now online. That is because it is highly effective and it targets industry growth in this area. I encourage the Minister of State to talk to the Minister for Health and his officials about this.

I acknowledge the Minister of State is outlining the views of the Minister but I wish to make a broader point on Internet advertising. We have to move beyond saying it is impossible to regulate online advertising on the grounds that it can simply be shifted offshore. While the Minister of State is not championing this, we have moved into the digital world and we sound like a bunch of analog politicians talking about a world we do not understand. I encourage her to talk to her Government colleagues and officials because we cannot dismiss proper regulation of Internet advertising for reasons that may have been valid a decade ago, namely, the fact that it is an international business or businesses can use offshore platforms, etc. We need to get our heads around this and if it requires a multinational or an EU approach, we should figure out how to make that happen.