The Government is moving to dissuade young people, especially those underage, from drinking alcopops, the garish alcohol-spiked fruit juices and colas which have provoked controversy here and in Britain since their appearance last year. Mr Tom Kitt, the Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, said yesterday there were "insidious concoctions cynically aimed at the impressionability and vulnerability of youth".
Unveiling a draft code of practice which would regulate the promotion and labelling of the drinks, Mr Kitt said he and the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Co wen, planned to make the rules law if the industry did not impose them voluntarily. "I'm not being a killjoy here, but I would describe this as an undesirable product," he said.
A spokesman for the National Parents Council supported the move. "They are an enticement to young people and we want to see them banned completely. It would be one less product for parents to worry about."
The manufacturers of the most popular alcopop, Woody's, said it could only interpret the minister's remarks as self-promotion. Mr Philip Smith, the managing director of United Beverages, said the proposed rules were virtually identical to ones his company sent to the Department in March 1996.
Earlier this week, a chain of British pubs, J.D. Wetherspoon, said it would no longer stock alcopops because of bad publicity. While the products have sparked concerns among the parents of teenagers, the controversy has a ring of familiarity. In 1977, for example, the secretary of the Vintners' Federation, Mr Edward Connellan, called for a working party to tackle the "growing scandal of underage drinking". In 1985, the then Minister for Health, Mr Barry Desmond, railed against advertising which "glamourised" drink for young people.
There have been accusations against Babycham of encouraging women to drink, and Smirnoff, which was said to promote the fact that parents could not smell it on the breath of their offspring.