Sporting bodies are “very much in the alcohol industry’s pocket”, an Oireachtas committee was told yesterday.
Prof Joe Barry of Alcohol Action Ireland told the Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications that suggestions alcohol sponsorship of sports did not have an effect on alcohol consumption in young people were not true.
He said he read the transcript from a previous committee meeting at which the IRFU, FAI and GAA made the assertion and he was “saddened” to hear it. “Their relationship with these companies is causing a lot of harm to young people.”
Prof Barry said alcohol companies would not spend so much on marketing and advertising if it did not work.
A study, funded by the seventh framework programme of the European Commission and carried out among 6,500 children aged 13 to 15, showed an association between exposure to alcohol sports sponsorship and increased drinking in school children, he said.
Source: Fiona Gartland, Irish Times, 18/04/13
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