The Dáil will vote on Wednesday on a Green Party proposal to ban the advertising of "junk food" to children and to heavily restrict toy advertising in the run-up to Christmas.
The Green Party Private Members' Bill, to be debated tomorrow and Wednesday, seeks to "tackle the health crisis we are facing as a result of the poor diet that is increasingly being promoted to our young children", the party's communications spokesman, Mr Eamon Ryan, said yesterday.
The Bill also seeks to curtail "exploitative" toy advertising to reduce the "massive pester power" which parents suffer.
Mr Ryan said the Bill was not seeking to "usurp" the work of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, which is currently engaged in a public consultation process aimed at drafting a children's advertising code next year.
Rather, he said, the Bill sought to "steer" the BCI with a view to generating more "radical" measures. "This needs political leadership to say 'Yes, we are going to ban these advertisements'. Otherwise we are going to be left with quite a weak system."
Of 200 adverts surveyed by the Greens last year during children's daytime TV, more than half were for junk food, he said.
Under the Green Party Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2003, these ads would be banned, along with all advertising to children under a certain age. Mr Ryan said he believed the proposed ban should apply to under-10s.