Ms Kathleen O'Meara:

Yes, it is related to health. Political will would be required to do this, and we have seen examples of political will in this area in Ireland before. We are not saying this is a simple request and it is not. We have been told that it is potentially difficult in the context of the tobacco tax directive but our advice is that it can be done. In particular, it can be done because this issue is health-related as opposed to a normal market element. There is no question that it would be an intervention in the market but there are other examples of market intervention. We are asking for this market intervention because tobacco harm is so considerable and there are public health issues involved that are being dealt with internationally.

For example, the only public health international treaty concerns tobacco, namely, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. That is a World Health Organization treaty and Ireland is a signatory to it. It is an unprecedented treaty in many ways and it is designed to intervene in and control relationships in particular around tobacco. It is recognised internationally and by the Irish Government that the tobacco industry is not a normal industry and the level of harm being caused by it means that governments must take a particular view about it. Therefore, we ask for political will to become evident. A previous Minister responsible for health, Deputy Micheál Martin, took action that at the time was unprecedented in the world.