Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 25 Mar 1997

Vol. 476 No. 7

Written Answers. - Alcoholic Lemonades.

Brendan Smith

Question:

147 Mr. B. Smith asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the widespread concern at the sale of alcoholic lemonades; the action, if any, he has taken to allay such public concern; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8264/97]

Minister for Health (Mr. Noonan,

Limerick East): I am aware of public concern with regard to the sale of alcoholic fruit drinks. Evidence available from UK-based research indicates that such drinks are particularly popular with underage drinkers. I indicated to the House last November that, whereas the national alcohol policy does not make specific reference to these drinks, it does contain proposals for a range of initiatives to tackle, inter alia, underage drinking. I am concerned, therefore, to ensure that we put in place a broad range of strategies to discourage underage drinking. The actions proposed in the national alcohol policy include: initiatives with youth in the formal and non-formal education sectors; development of the role of parents in helping their children to adopt sensible and responsible attitudes and behaviours in relation to alcohol and facilitation by the Department of Justice of the identity card scheme.

With regard to the first two of these initiatives, my Department is in dialogue with health boards about appropriate health promotion strategies for young people. A Youth Health Promotion Officer has been contracted by the Consultative Committee on Health Promotion, chaired by my colleague, Deputy Brian O'Shea, Minister of State, to take this work forward. An Education and Training Officer was also assigned to the Health Promotion Unit within the last few months. One of her functions is to work, through the health boards, with local parent and community groups on a range of topics including the substance abuse package "Drug Questions Local Answers".

The national alcohol policy also encourages the drinks industry to play its part in promoting sensible drinking. This could be done by providing responsible server training for staff; establishing a charter for retailers which would incorporate best practices in relation to customers, staff and promotions; endorsing and incorporating into their code that "no alcoholic drinks sponsorship of youth activities should be undertaken directly or indirectly" and confining advertisements to factual information which would be in keeping with the National Alcohol Policy sensible drinking guidelines.

My Department, together with the Department of Enterprise and Employment, is in discussion with representatives of the industry concerning a code of practice with regard to curtailing underage drink supply. The Deputy will be aware that my colleague, the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, has sought the agreement of the European Commission to introducing more stringent requirements for labelling alcoholic fruit drinks with the aim of protecting consumers' health. We are keeping in close touch with this proposal. In the meantime, I would encourage the drinks industry to continue its work of developing an appropriate and effective voluntary code aimed at curtailing the supply of all alcohol to under age groups.