Written answers

Tuesday, 24 April 2018

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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347. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to ban the sale of energy drinks to those under 16 years of age; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17446/18]

Photo of Catherine ByrneCatherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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While there are no specific plans along the lines requested by the Deputy, there are a number of existing instruments directly relevant to this area.

Existing legislation stipulates that energy drinks that contain caffeine in excess of 150 mg/l must be labelled 'High caffeine content - not recommended for children or pregnant or breastfeeding women' in the same field of vision as the name of the beverage.

In addition, I recently launched voluntary Codes of Practice for the Non-Broadcast Media Advertising and Marketing of Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, including Sponsorship and Retail Product Placement.

The purpose of these Codes is to ensure that foods and drinks high in fat, especially saturated fat, sugar and salt are marketed and advertised in a responsible way, especially to young people. High energy drinks will qualify as high sugar products under the criteria being used to define high sugar drinks. Therefore their advertising, marketing, sponsorship and product placement will be covered by these new Codes.

The Codes sit alongside and complement other voluntary and statutory measures intended to ensure the responsible marketing of food to the public. These include the Broadcast Authority of Ireland General and Children’s Commercial Communications Code and the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland Code of Standards for Advertising and Marketing Communications in Ireland.

Finally, the Minister for Finance announced in Budget 2018 the introduction of a sugar tax, at a rate of 30 cent per litre on drinks with over eight grams of sugar per 100 millilitres, along with a reduced rate of 20 cent per litre on drinks with between five and eight grams of sugar per 100 millilitres. The rationale for the sugar tax is to reduce the consumption of drinks high in sugar such as high energy drinks.

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