Irish Mediocrity

GoggiP

Do you think that this is a complete waste of government monies? By whom I mean the tax payer? It is this detachment with reality that drives me to write this article.

(Ref: RTE http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0905/alcohol.html)A Government appointed committee is considering a ban on the sponsorship of sports events by drinks companies.

The National Substance Misuse Strategy Group is due to complete its report by the end of next month.

Health promotion groups argue that sponsorship of sports events by drinks companies encourages people, especially young people to drink alcohol, and contributes to alcohol abuse.

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The National Youth Council, which is one of 33 bodies on the National Substance Misuse Strategy Group, says that linking alcohol and sport sends out the wrong message to young people - and it wants a ban on sponsorship.

Sports organisations such as the IRFU, the FAI and the GAA argue that finding alternative sponsorship would be difficult and a ban could be detrimental to sport.

The Alcohol Beverage Federation, which is also on the committee, says funding by the drinks industry is of huge benefit to sport - but it says that the Strategy group is disproportionately composed of health bodies who want a ban.

The committee's report, which will cover wider issues concerning the sale and advertising of alcohol, is due to complete its report and proposals by the end of October.

I have not written an article of any kind since my leaving certificate in 2002 yet I am so enraged I find the need to point out a few expenditures the lay tax man is oblivious to. This is not the rant of a 26 year man who works in IT rather a need to find common ground with people who care about our society and to point out the crowd of “why are you making a stir?” group.

In the above short brief article I’d like to list the highlighted groups.

The National Substance Misuse Strategy Group Made up of 33 bodies



Sports organisations



Health promotion groups



The Alcohol Beverage Federation, which is also on the committee



Can anyone tell me who are or what is the The National Substance Misuse Strategy Group



There is very little on the internet about them or it. The country is heading for a melt down and we are worried about sport being sponsored by alcohol which is not educated to our kids at a young age anyway. The problem is non reversible before a young adult/person under 15 years has to make decisions about something he or she does not know anything about. The common decision any uneducated adult will take is trial and error about almost anything. This was highlighted by the explosion of head shops that opened up around the country in recent times. Even governments take this approach to life it seems, not worried about the mass population that they are potentially killing.

Rather than grasp the nettle Ireland is waiting for the worst to happen and every decision seems to be taken at an unknown level in societies building by an unknown person in office number 404 requests unknown. Let me expand on how we grasp the nettle. It seems like we are heading for a rich and poor divide concurrent with the divide between public state and private sector workers. There are just about enough well paid private sector workers for the house of cards to appear real. The biggest bite has not yet hit the private sector worker as we are heading for a 30% minimum wage tax.

Paradoxically when the minimum paid worker hits 30% tax on his basic wage the higher rate of tax will remain balanced never going above 45% . The only way to avoid this delicate balance act is to employ people and spend money. As a nation we have to get highly motivated to do this and take back certain functions from government. We need community government that tackles these issues on a per person basis and let’s abolish the list of quango’s such as the ones I listed above. This will involve a complete overhaul of the public sector and a remapping of Irish towns and rural areas and above all community vision. Communities should be held accountable for each citizen in there jurisdiction. At the moment the citizen seems to be held by association to his community ie. Myross, knocknaheeney Ballymun etc.



I believe us Irish have a huge chance to make Ireland the number 1 place in the world to visit invest and work. But who cares?

Turtwig

Well I found this pdf, which lists all the members involved with the National Drug Strategy, of which the National Substance Misuse Group is a part of. (Chapter one is dedicated to them)

OP, I'm confused are you against alcohol sponsership?

GoggiP

I do not see any reason to be confused about what I wrote but all comments are welcome. The point of the article is to point out how ridiculous the government is wasting vasts amount of money on something like alcohol sponsorship. I mean it makes no difference to anyone if Guinness sponsor the GAA or not. You would have to be living on a different planet not to see whats going on out there in our streets.

smiles302

I'd agree with you there. It sounds like a waste of government time, I imagine it's unlikely this is based on sound study and more on random fears.

I think your link has broken though, and I'm confused as how alcohol related sponsoring the GAA has anything to do with people caring about how Ireland ranks in world investment and a place to live?

GoggiP

The article is written in two parts. One part is a direct copy of the link posted above without the ) at the end of it. Here is the link again without the ironic http 404 error.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0905/alcohol.html

The second part is written by myself. Here I outline the governments wastage of cash spending and how irrelevant topics are given priority in the day to day business of public funded organisations.

Reform is paramount for a quick recovery of jobs for the boys.