by Declan Jordan
The Irish government has kicked to touch on the issue of alcohol sponsorship of sports. The Minster for Sport, Leo Varadkar, and the Minister for Arts and Culture, Jimmy Deenihan, (who may also be worried that a ban for sports will be extended to a ban for cultural events), have accepted the arguments from the Health ministers for a ban. However, providing a really good example of regulatory capture, said the ban cannot go ahead until alternative funding is identified to compensate sports organisations.
It's notable that the ministers should take the line of the sports organisations that they should be compensated. It is hard to think of another industry or commercial organisation that would demand compensation from a government decision to implement policy designed to improve health. The government didn't compensate pharmacists when it introduced restrictive regulations on the sale of codeine-based products. It didn't compensate retailers when introducing plain packaging for cigarettes. Then again I suppose those industries don't have ministers representing them at cabinet.
There is of course politics at play. The ministers want to protect their budgets and pressure on income for the sporting bodies may result in greater call on scarce public funding for sport. There are legitimate questions regarding public funding for professional sports (including rugby, football and GAA - the latter being amateur in terms of players but not in terms of the organisation).
It's notable that the ministers should take the line of the sports organisations that they should be compensated. It is hard to think of another industry or commercial organisation that would demand compensation from a government decision to implement policy designed to improve health. The government didn't compensate pharmacists when it introduced restrictive regulations on the sale of codeine-based products. It didn't compensate retailers when introducing plain packaging for cigarettes. Then again I suppose those industries don't have ministers representing them at cabinet.
There is of course politics at play. The ministers want to protect their budgets and pressure on income for the sporting bodies may result in greater call on scarce public funding for sport. There are legitimate questions regarding public funding for professional sports (including rugby, football and GAA - the latter being amateur in terms of players but not in terms of the organisation).
The announcement of the government of it's requirement that alternative funding be put in place to compensate sports bodies after a ban on alcohol sponsorship creates a potentially counter-productive incentive for sports bodies and the drinks industry. The larger the gap that needs to be filled the more difficult it will be to implement such a ban. This means drinks firms could have an incentive to dramatically increase their sponsorship of sports organisations to make government think twice when they come to look at how much compensation will cost them. It would be in the government's interest to indicate that compensation will be based on 2012 levels.
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