Alcohol Advertising

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 November 2021

Tuesday, 23 November 2021

Questions (704)

Paul Murphy

Question:

704. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Health his plans to ensure that the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 is implemented ensuring that children are protected from alcohol marketing, particularly the broadcast watershed under section 19 that removes alcohol advertising from television until 9 p.m. and the content of advertisements under section 13, which, if enacted, ensures all self-regulatory and voluntary codes administered by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland would become redundant and replaced by a statutory code (details supplied). [57597/21]

Written answers

Minister for Health

The full implementation of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 remains a priority.

Section 13 on the content of advertisements requires regulations which must be submitted to European Commission under the Technical Standards Directive (Directive (EU) 2015/1535). Those regulations are currently being developed.

Section 19 on a broadcast watershed requires engagement with the Environmental Health Service and the Broadcast Authority of Ireland on compliance and enforcement issues.

Work on commencing both of these section was suspended throughout 2020 and much of 2021 due to resources being diverted to COVID-19 related areas and has now restarted.