Vol. 520 No. 2
40 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands the proposals, if any, she has to ban or restrict advertising of alcohol on television; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15329/00]
Section 4 of the Broadcasting Act, 1990, provides that the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands has the power to draw up and amend codes governing standards, practice and prohibitions in advertising and other forms of commercial promotion in broadcasting. Paragraph 15 of the codes drawn up under that provision places a number of restrictions on the advertising of alcohol. The restrictions are designed to prevent the broadcasting of advertisements for alcoholic drink aimed at young people and advertisements that would encourage immoderate consumption. The codes also recognise a voluntary code whereby spirit based alcoholic drinks, whiskey, gin, etc., are not advertised on radio and television. I have no plans at present to introduce further restrictions at this time. For the sake of clarity I should point out that the codes mentioned above, including the voluntary code relating to the advertising of spirit based alcoholic drinks, apply only to indigenous broadcasters and not to the many British and other European broadcasting services that are available at present.
Section 15 of the Broadcasting Bill, 1999, provides that the Independent Radio and Television Commission, to be renamed the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland under the Bill, will, in future, be responsible for drawing up codes specifying standards to be complied with, and rules and practices to be observed, in respect of advertising, teleshopping, sponsorship and other forms of commercial promotion employed on any broadcasting service. When the Bill is enacted, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland will be free to amend the existing codes as it sees fit.
