State ‘must help sport end drink ties’

THE Government should financially support sporting organisations which try to sever the link between sponsorship and alcohol, a doctors’ organisation said yesterday.

Rolande Anderson, alcohol project officer at the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), said that if sporting bodies suffered as a result of ditching their lucrative alcohol sponsorship deals, the Exchequer should step in.

“If sporting organisations are going to suffer, which they undoubtedly will, and find it difficult to get other sponsors, then the Government should look at supporting them.