Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 22 October 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Business Closures and Job Losses: Discussion with National Off-Licence Association

2:50 pm

Mr. Andrew Kinsella:

I wish to add to that. I am not in this sector anymore but I read the Sunday newspapers and I do not believe for a second that any reasonable adult does not take certain messages from the full-page advertisements in newspapers. Only by legislation and restriction in the advertising code are they restricted to one third of a full-size page. People can make their own judgment on that. To me, that is an indication of some of the intent of what large business tries to do.

To cap it all off, there is a small little logo at the bottom which says, "Please drink our products responsibly". That has been the sop that big business has managed to negotiate with the people who control the sector in Ireland and whose responsibility it is to negotiate.