Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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I thank Mr. MacEvilly for that and thank Senator Boylan. Have the witnesses done any work on the advertising issue? It is something we discussed here about a year ago. It seems to be a fundamental challenge. Every psychological trick in the book is being used to persuade people to consume more and buy things they often do not need. Advertising tries to persuade them they need things like the large SUV or whatever. There is such a dearth of research in this area on how we might tackle it legislatively. The French have done some good work, as have the Dutch, but it would be really good to see research relevant to this country and our Constitution, because I think property rights come into this as it has to with intellectual property.

We need to move this forward somehow but we are really at a low base when it comes to taking it on.