Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will give an overview of the amendments before the House. They are being taken together to allow us to discuss children's clothing, advertising on the Internet and broadcast advertising. Amendments Nos. 3, 6 and 29 are technical ministerial amendments that relate to the proposed provisions regarding children's clothing, which is dealt with in section 16 of the Bill. It is proposed to delete the definition of "children's clothing" in section 16(4) of the Bill and instead provide for a definition in section 2 of the Bill, as Senator Norris has alluded to.

Amendments Nos. 2, 5, 11, 13, 36 and 37 are ministerial amendments which provide for a new section and related definitions and offences. Protecting children from exposure to alcohol marketing is an important public health goal. The Bill contains a range of measures to regulate advertising. Amendment No. 36 provides for a watershed for the broadcast of alcohol advertisements on television and radio. It states that advertisements for alcohol products cannot be broadcast on television before 9 p.m. and that such advertisements cannot be broadcast on the radio other than between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays. The watershed times have been agreed in consultation with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, which have the intelligence in this area. The intention is to capture the peak viewing and listening times for children, which are early evening in the case of television and breakfast time and 7 p.m. in the case of radio. A person guilty of an offence under the new section will be liable "on summary conviction, to a class A fine, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or both" or "on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €250,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years, or both". The amendment also proposes that a penalty of up to €2,000 per day will apply to continued breaches of the broadcast watershed section following conviction. Officials in the Department of Health and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel are examining this section further and an amendment may be required on Report Stage.

I thank Opposition Senators for submitting amendments Nos. 4, 7 to 9, inclusive, 12 and 38, which provide for restrictions on advertising on the Internet and for related definitions and offences. I recognise there is a gap in the Bill with regard to Internet advertising, particularly given the appeal of social media for young people. While this issue was considered during the drafting of the Bill, I believe it must be tackled at EU level because of the cross-Border nature of this form of advertising. We are working with our colleagues in the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment in this regard. All advertisements on the Internet must comply with the content provisions of section 12 of the Bill and will have health warnings. I regret that I cannot accept these amendments at this stage. However, I will request that the officials in the Department of Health and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel examine the proposal and I will revert to the House in this regard on Report Stage.

Opposition amendments Nos. 39 and 40 also provide for restrictions on advertising on television and radio. In these amendments, the Senators further propose to restrict advertising around sport on television and radio. The Bill provides for restrictions on advertising at sporting events and regulates the content of alcohol advertisements. A watershed will also be provided for in the new section. The Bill provides for a review of all the advertising provisions after three years. The issue of advertising in sport may be revisited pending the outcome of this review. For this reason, I do not propose to accept these amendments, regretfully.

I would like to respond to the point that was made about the use of glasses of alcohol to attract people to avail of certain services. This issue is dealt with in section 21 of the Bill, on the subject of "Regulations relating to sale and supply of alcohol products". Under this section, people will be prohibited or restricted "from selling or supplying, or causing to be sold or supplied, an alcohol product at a reduced price or free of charge to any person on the purchase by that person, or by any other person, of ... one or more other alcohol products" or "any other product or service". That deals with the matter. The Minister will make the regulations for dealing with that. I hope I have addressed the concerns that were raised.