David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I play tiddly-winks. I used to play a lot of rugby but I am too old and fat to do it now, which supports my point that one plays sports when one is young, apart from golf. The most passionate people about sports, very often, are young. Of course the drinks industry knows that and it knows that sporting events are good occasions on which to nab the attention of the young.

Sport is intended to be healthy. Let us consider the Greeks and Romans and the Latin phrase mens sana in corpore sana, which means a healthy mind in a healthy body. If one talks about health surely it is contraindicated to use these kinds of healthy events to sponsor something that damages one's health and injures. Therefore, I strongly support the prohibition on sports sponsorship.

Different sports will find it relatively more easy to get rid of drinks sponsorship. I signed this Bill so I am implicated. It will be quite difficult to detach the horse racing business from booze simply because people, after the excitement of a race, go into the booze tent and sink a couple of jars. That activity is part of the buzz for an awful lot of people. It will be more difficult to detach alcohol sponsorship from horse racing and dog racing. However, it is important that we set as a target the entire removal of drinks sponsorship from sport.