I commend the Minister for attending the House because this is a difficult and topical issue. Irish consumers are, by and large, well protected from unscrupulous trading and commercial practices. The Consumer Information Act, 1978, and the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act, 1980, have given them considerable protection and provide for redress where a consumer is dissatisfied with a product or service. The Director of Consumer Affairs and the Consumers' Association of Ireland Limited play an invaluable role in representing and advocating the interests of consumers.
It is clear that the interests of consumers need protecting. Daily we are all faced with competing messages from companies urging us to buy their goods and services and we exercise our freely given right to prefer one supplier or service provider to another. It is important in making these choices that we, as consumers, are not placed under unfair or subtle pressures to influence our decisions. The regime operated by the Advertising Standards Authority plays an important role in ensuring that we are not misled by inaccurate advertising.
In recent months we have seen the re-emergence of marketing promotion involving schools where companies promise to provide free sponsorship of much needed equipment in return for vouchers obtained from the company's outlets. I refer specifically to the Tesco computers for schools promotion. This scheme involves parents receiving a voucher for every £10 spent at Tesco owned stores. The schools are urged to collect the vouchers and when sufficient vouchers are gathered, the schools exchange them for equipment.
The promotion was launched in February 1998. Every school received a pack directly from Tesco which included pre-printed circulars from the school to parents. These were printed on paper carrying the Tesco logo and slogan. Many schools sent these requests to parents, seeking the vouchers. To obtain a free computer and software, parents of children in the school must spend up to £170,000 on grocery products in Tesco owned stores.
I do not have any difficulty with commercial enterprises, large or small, engaging schools in straightforward sponsorship or promotional activities. It is commendable that so many companies become involved with schools, through sponsoring competitions, producing educational packs on matters of relevance to the curriculum or placement programmes. However, there is a distinction to be drawn between bona fide sponsorship initiatives and initiatives with strings attached. It is not right that children should put pressure on parents to collect vouchers or tokens from a particular retailer or any other business. In this case, it involves putting pressure on the children of the 75 per cent of parents who do not currently shop in Tesco owned stores. It also places unfair pressure on teachers and it can have divisive effects in some communities given the school's existing relationship with the local retailers.
The Department of Education and Science introduced at least two circulars dealing with the issue of commercial exploitation of schools. Circular 23/84 requested school management authorities to consider carefully the implications of allowing any situation to develop which would result in parents being put under pressure that would be prejudicial to the interests of the pupils. Circular 7/87 again cautioned school authorities against allowing any situation to develop which would result in parents being put under pressure to purchase a particular product.
Promotions in schools which directly link sponsorship with purchases are wrong. The existing guidelines are inadequate and a new guideline from the Minister is needed. No position should be allowed to develop where a commercial undertaking's sponsorship of a school is intrinsically linked with the parents of children at that school making purchases from the undertaking. It places unfair pressure on parents, teachers and pupils. We should work towards and encourage genuine interaction between schools and business. However, it should be a relationship with no strings attached. If businesses wish to bestow largesse on schools, they should not extract a price for doing so. Schools should not be used by any commercial enterprise, local, national or international, as a marketing device to acquire customers. They are a wholly inappropriate forum for commercial matters.
By introducing a new circular on this issue, the Minister will ensure that children in schools will never again be subjected to unfair commercial pressures from businesses. He will also ensure that parents will not be subjected to similar resultant pressure from their children. Ultimately, he will ensure that consumers will make their purchasing decisions without being subjected to additional unfair and subtle pressure from commercial enterprises.
This venture is less about getting computers into schools and more about getting customers into Tesco owned shops. It is a case of a commercial company using children to place unfair pressure on their parents. Children are coming home in tears because their friends are supplying vouchers and they cannot do so if their parents do not shop in TesCo. The Minister should not have allowed himself and his Department to promote a Tesco expansion plan, particularly in view of its ban on Irish beef in Britain. Two Ministers travelled to Britain this week to beg Tesco to put Irish beef back on the shelves. The Minister's intentions were admirable, but there is something wrong and I ask him to redress the position.
