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Laura Hutton / Photocall Ireland

Minister: Alcohol sponsorship of sport is 'complicated'

The Minister was slow to comment on a proposed ban on drinks firms sponsoring sports events today.

MINISTER LEO VARADKAR has refused to comment publicly on whether the Department of Health will proceed with a blanket ban on alcohol companies sponsoring major sporting events.

Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics, he said the issue with alcohol advertising and sponsorship in sport is “complicated”.

Junior Minister Alex White has submitted his revised proposals to Varadkar, who said there are still discussions to be held.

He acknowledged that while Ireland has a problem with alcohol, consumption is falling, as is drinking among the young.

The Fine Gael TD supports the vast majority of White’s proposals, including the implementation of minimum pricing, further education and putting the current code of conduct on a statutory basis. He would not be drawn on whether he agrees with a ban on alcohol sponsors for big events.

The Sunday Times reports today that arts and cultural festivals will be exempt from the ban, which will come into effect from 2020.

Varadkar noted that any changes to current laws should be evidence-based, adding that France’s alcohol consumption is on the rise despite a ban on drinks sponsorship.

He said the Cabinet have been asked to make their observations on White’s proposals later this week. An Oireachtas committee has previous heard that any ban would be a “major impediment” to Ireland’s 2023 Rugby World Cup bid.

Poll: Should sports sponsorship by alcohol companies be regulated?

Column: Should there be alcohol advertising in sport?

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36 Comments
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    Mute Joanna
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    Jan 6th 2015, 10:44 AM

    This is what happens when you bring good exclusives to the table *embraces PS4 lovingly*

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    Mute Liam Ó Séaghdha
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    Jan 6th 2015, 10:53 AM

    Brilliant device! Much better than Xbox and better exclusives. However the range of games still needs improvement. Big releases like COD Advanced Warfare and Killzone failed to deliver.

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    Mute Kieran Ryan
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    Jan 6th 2015, 5:37 PM

    You can’t really blame Sony if someone makes a game for it that isn’t good. Didn’t Microsoft buy Call of Duty anyway? Sony can hardly have a say with that obviously

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    Mute Derek Mahon
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    Jan 6th 2015, 12:05 PM

    Now that Sony are making a profit, might we see some investment in their server capacity to stop these DDOS attacks from taking down the system. Lizard Squad repeatedly said Sony and MS’ systems were useless so now with all that money hopefully they’ll invest some of it into the people who made their profits.

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    Mute Dave
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    Jan 6th 2015, 12:55 PM

    To my knowledge MS use Cloudflare for such attacks. Sony don’t which is why their service was down for days

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    Mute Damien
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    Jan 6th 2015, 3:59 PM

    Your knowledge is wrong.

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    Mute Dave
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    Jan 6th 2015, 5:19 PM

    Right or wrong, XBL was back up in 24hrs after the attack. Sony for their size should step it up especially after 2011.

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    Mute Live Long
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    Jan 6th 2015, 11:11 AM

    Xbox rules, PS4 drools!

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    Mute Seán A Haon
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    Jan 6th 2015, 1:17 PM

    18.5 million * €400 = WTF!!!!!

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    Mute Joseph Murphy
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    Jan 6th 2015, 12:08 PM

    It’s pretty incredible how well it’s selling considering how lackluster the second half of 2014 was for exclusives. The Last of Us Remastered (a last gen game), DriveClub (disastrous broken launch, but now fixed finally) and LittleBigPlanet 3 (sent out to die) the only ones that I can think of. Thank god for 3rd parties! Really looking forward to Bloodbourne in March, though! I think Microsoft must be kicking themselves for the cock up that was E3 2013. All that online only stuff and Kinect disaster drove people away from them in droves and they’re only now recovering.

    It will be an interesting year ahead between the two.

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    Mute CitizenSmith©
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    Jan 6th 2015, 10:49 AM

    The play station is a loss leader, they make the money on the games

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    Mute The Doctor
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    Jan 6th 2015, 11:00 AM

    No, they are now making a profit on each unit sold.

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    Mute Sternn
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    Jan 6th 2015, 2:36 PM

    Doesn’t beat the Xbox One. I see they glossed over posting how those sales were in comparison…

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    Mute Kieran Ryan
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    Jan 6th 2015, 5:39 PM

    Yes, how easy it must be to gloss over sales figures that have not even been released

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    Mute Cormac Mc Greal
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    Jan 7th 2015, 1:02 PM

    Tyumen

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