Drinks advertising - Voluntary alcohol codenot enough
Specifically, in a country where binge drinking among young people is almost endemic, the Government appears reluctant to do anything positive to attract the disapproval of the industry.
Yesterday, Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney launched the Alcohol Advertising Monitoring Body, which amounts to her department and representatives of the advertising, drinks and media communications industries agreeing to a code of practice.
Significantly, that code is merely a voluntary one. This is despite the appointment of the monitoring body which will be chaired by Peter Cassells, formerly of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, who is now chair of the National Centre for Partnership and Performance.
The Tánaiste is of the belief that these codes are a practical and workable solution for reducing the exposure of young people to alcohol advertising.
It would appear that she is not completely certain that they will achieve that objective because she holds out the threat over those industries of the Bill on Alcohol Products.
That would restrict alcohol advertising and marketing practices, and the minister said she will progress that bill if the annual report of the monitoring body next year finds that this process is lacking, and if there are consistent breaches of the code.
But why wait a year to see if the voluntary code is effective?
After all, the health of our young people is not to be diced with, nor indeed, anybody’s health.
As health minister, she should be more than cognisant of the disastrous effects of alcohol abuse on young people and families in this country.
The IMO, which represents over 5,000 doctors, certainly is and estimates that 150,000 children under the age of 18 are regular drinkers.
Dr Joe Barry, a public health specialist, described this monitoring body launched by the Tánaiste as a “truly shameful episode” in the history of the department.
Any advertising of alcohol is geared to sell the product and there is no gainsaying the fact that as a vehicle it is seriously influential in achieving that.
The obvious comparison is smoking and the promoting of that was successfully ended, although it would be ludicrous to advocate for alcohol the extreme that was adopted in the case of tobacco.
The point is, that if the political will exists, then an objective can be achieved, no matter how unpopular the move might be among a certain cross-section.
In this case, it is the vested interests of the drinks and advertising industries which would be upset if such a global ban were instituted.
The Alcohol Advertising Monitoring Body is an expedient, with no statutory support, which will ultimately depend on the industry to abide by standards on a voluntary basis.
The minister and the Government have turned a deaf ear to a recommendation last year by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, which advocated a complete ban on alcohol advertising.
As the IMO pointed out, in the same year the Strategic Task Force on Alcohol alluded to a draft Alcohol Products Bill - the same embryonic legislation which the minister highlighted yesterday as a possible threat to the industry.
It will remain nothing more until such time as the Government stops paying lip service to a very serious health and social problem.
It was hardly reassuring that the health minister decided not to renew the contract of her national policy advisor on alcohol, an outspoken critic of some Government policies on alcohol abuse, on the same day she launched the new body.
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