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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLHQMDM07DY
TDS THIS MORNING considered an Oireachtas Committee report on the sponsorship of sport by alcohol companies in a discussion which heard a mix of personal experiences and views on how to tackle alcohol abuse in this country.
The Dáil chamber was mostly empty for the debate but among a number of interesting contributions was Jerry Buttimer’s with the Fine Gael TD admitting to binge drinking at times.
“I take a pint, I take a drink, I binge drink myself, and I’m ashamed of that, but collectively as a nation we must change our attitude to alcohol,” he said.
Buttimer, the chairman of the Oireachtas Health Committee, said that promotion of alcohol should be “strongly tackled” and hit out at the use of Arthur’s Day and the Guinness Brewery during visits by foreign dignitaries.
“We have far better imagery along the coasts in County Clare, with the Cliffs of Moher or in my own county of Cork with the Lakes of Killarney or in West Cork where we can bring these dignitaries.”
His Fine Gael colleague, Eoghan Murphy, said that tackling alcohol abuse should not mean closing off-licences early and said that Ireland’s problem with drink is “historical and cultural”.
“There’s a crowd of people down in Temple Bar getting hammered every week,” he said, adding that “education and example” and “not policies not based on evidence” should be used.
Former primary care minister Roísín Shortall commended her successor Alex White for bringing forward measures to tackle alcohol abuse, but said that the Committee’s report failed to identify streams of revenue to replace alcohol sponsorship.
The government has delayed implementation of any ban on alcohol sponsorship of sport until a ‘working group’ reports back in a year’s time.
Independent TD Mick Wallace suggested that the government should pay €200 million to sporting organisations to make up for the shortfall caused by loss of sports sponsorship.
Committee chairman, John O’Mahoney from Fine Gael, said that he hoped in future we would live in a country “where sport can thrive and sports people can be healthier”.
“The ideal solution is that sport and alcohol sponsorship would be divided, but let’s get the funding to replace it,” he said towards the end of the debate.
Earlier, TDs discussed Sinn Féin’s private members’ bill to ban the use of fluoride in Ireland’s drinking water supply. Brian Stanley, who brought the bill before the house, said that people should not be forced to consume the product.
But White, representing the government, said suggestions that fluoride in the water supply is unsafe could not be “further from the truth”.
He said: “The balance of scientific evidence worldwide confirms that water fluoridation, at the optimal level, does not cause ill effects and protects the oral health of the population.”
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Great work guys
Hopefully these people are locked up for a long time,firing rounds at gardai over getting caught for illegal fishing. These people have to be the lowest of the low.
@Richard Brogan: I guess they slipped through the authorities hand
@Richard Brogan: there was no Gardai involved at the scene, on that night of 28th of July, and nowhere did the article state gun fired at gardai!
@Martin: it was fired at the fisheries officer’s
@Martin: does it matter who the target of the firing actually was? Shots were fired at people doing their jobs, surely that is bad enough?
@BriP75: slipped through the net, fishy customers, salmon must have grassed on them.
@Martin: Gardai were far too busy busting hippies growing a few weed plants in their shed. Who cares if our rivers are being plundered? Or that sex offenders roam our streets after getting suspended sentences. Lets expend all police resources and funding on locking up horticulturists instead.
I’m just glad there was someone with the balls and brains to go tackle some actual criminals.
“The fish were fresh in from the sea, having survived a journey from either the coastal waters off west Greenland or the Faroe Island, before being cruelly killed by an illegal net, a few miles from their final destination.”
Would a “legal” net be any less “cruel”?
@Richard Hegarty: A legal net wouldn’t be farming them at this point in their lifecycle.
@Richard Hegarty: Green land why did they not fly home it was a holiday destination aloud
@Richard Hegarty: There aren’t any legal nets for Salmon in this country.
@Robert Conneely: Yes there most certainly is. We have legal draft nets operating here on the River Laune in kerry.
Thank god the caught them.
The fisheries officers turn a blind eye to a lot of salmon netting, the people involved in Kerry at least are too dangerous to confront never mind prosecute…
@David Grey: tell us more
@David Grey: You’re not referring to the boys around the Cashen in Ballyduff are you ?
That’s more of it
How do you NOT ‘cruelly kill’ a fish?
@Tony Gordon: using a priest would be regarded as not cruel
@Martin: ah give over, sure the fish never got over the ‘loaves and fishes’ incident
@Tony Gordon: You certainly know nothing about fishing.
@Billy McNamara: a claim I never made, and a question not answered
@Tony Gordon: hitting it on the head with something blunt is one easiest and quickest for wild fish
They are at it on the suit, nore, barrow for years. About time the authorities acted.
I think the vehicles used in this type of crime should be confiscated as well. Prison sentences with much more severe sentences handed out.
Typo on the sub-headline. (Investigating).
I pefare the more religus fish
The monk fish lovely fried in butter
There’s so thing very fishy about this story
It ant going to real me in!!!!!
@BriP75: they only discharged the gun to shoot the fish in the barrell
@Tony Gordon: maybe it was the Russians looken for salman rushty
@BriP75: puns tend to work better when spelled correctly.
@Peter Denham: you know Peter putting someone down for a selling mistake is petty, we all got the intended joke.
Some people have spelling difficulty, for many reasons, and maybe a little thought should be put into comments that arbitrarily put someone down.
@BriP75: It was actually the Iranians
@Tony Gordon: What’s a “selling” mistake?
@Tony Gordon: just do a spell check.
@James Kelly: just as long as smell checker recognises the worms correctly.
Poaching is still a thing,? Thought the rivers were empty..
@MickN: only our rivers run free
@MickN: Far from empty, and unfortunately poaching is very common. Angling clubs work closely with Inland Fisheries Ireland to try and catch the poachers and make an example of them.
Something fishy going on there
Down with this sort of stuff
Hang’em…
@M.J. O’ Neill: smokem salmon tastes better smoked
Nine x Y + shot = 20
Poaching of coarse fish is still at high levels. Thankfully work has been done but certain rivers and lakes will take years to get the stock up to previous levels. Whole stretch of canals were emptied out as well.
Happened with Pike in the past and Salmon traditionally but coarse fish had never been targeted so hard
have your say