Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has backed proposals to ban the alcohol industry from sponsoring sports events, and the idea that concert-goers should be scanned for weapons.
The idea came originally from the Junior Minister for Health Roisin Shortall who wants the practice phased out.
Ruairi Quinn was facing questions on the issue today, as part of the renewed focus on Ireland’s drink problem, following the scenes at a concert in Dublin’s Phoenix Park last weekend.
Nine young people were stabbed in attacks at the concert.
Minister Quinn said ticketholders at concerts now needed to be scanned for weapons as well as searched for drink.
“If somebody gets into a fracas and there’s just fisticuffs involved, there’s damage…but it’s not fatal in the same way that a knife is,” he said.
“”¦The area over which we have some control given modern technology is to ensure that nobody is carrying a potentially lethal weapon.”
