‘Pay clubs to drop drinks sponsorship’

Sports Minister Leo Varadkar has proposed a voluntary system for clubs and teams to opt out of sponsorship from alcohol companies as an alternative to a State-imposed ban.

Cabinet disagreement over the proposed ban is set to intensify, with Mr Varadkar’s alternative plan putting the onus on the Department of Health — rather than his own budget — to compensate organisations for any sponsorship lost.

Under the scheme, which he said worked effectively in Australia, groups which stopped taking money from the drinks industry would be entitled to a payment from the health department.

Consideration could be given at a later stage to “moving to the introduction of a ban only when it is shown that the money lost can be replaced through alternative sponsors”, said Mr Varadkar.

His comments come after Alex White, the junior health minister, said he was close to signing off on the plan to tackle alcohol misuse, and said decisions could not be made without “upsetting somebody”.

Ministers are already divided on the plan, which the Cabinet is due to sign off on next month, and will include plans to restrict sponsorship and marketing by the drinks industry.

Mr Varadkar, along with Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, Arts Minister Jimmy Deenihan, and Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte, has expressed reservations.

Mr Varadkar said he had “concerns” about the impact of cutting such a source of funding, which is worth €30m to sports bodies every year, almost as much as the Irish Sports Council’s budget of €40m.

“Difficulties currently being experienced by some of our high-profile teams and events in securing sponsorship suggest that the funding lost might not readily be replaced by alternative sources,” he said.

Government investment in sport had already been reduced in recent years, he said, and “the imposition of a ban on sponsorship would further undermine the efforts of sporting organisations to be self-sufficient”.

Mr Varadkar said there was no evidence to show that a ban on sponsorship would be effective in reducing drinking levels among youths.

He also insisted that any ban should only be based on strong evidence from a cost benefit analysis and not merely “for the optics”.

Mr Varadkar said instead of imposing a ban on alcohol sponsorship, his “preference” was for a voluntary system, similar to Australia’s.

Under the proposal “the Department of Health would compensate sporting organisations who voluntarily give up such sponsorship”, he said. He has proposed the voluntary scheme to the Department of Health and also to the Department of Finance in his pre-budget submission.

On Tuesday, Mr White said his department was close to finalising its action plan for tackling the problem of alcohol abuse, but warned it would include “some hard decisions”.

On the same day, Mr Varadkar said in response to a parliamentary question: “I do not think that the Government should impose such a law without fully compensating sports organisations for the revenue lost in the same way as we compensated political parties when corporate and private donations were restricted.”

The chairwoman of Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland, Anna Malmhake, said the health department’s proposals on sponsorship threaten the growth potential of the drinks industry here. “Proposals to prohibit industry support for artistic and sporting events... will not have the effect of addressing alcohol misuse in this country,” she said. “The proposals will do little more than limit the ability of the industry to innovate and market our products.”