Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Has any detailed research been done on what attracts young people to smoking when the health problems are already identified? The witnesses spoke about figures in the 15 to 24 age group. We also need to look at the ten or 12 to 15 age group.

My next concern is the research and how we formulate policy to steer young people away from starting to smoke. I am doing a research project in which we interview young people about their attitudes to the graphic pictures on the packaging. I hope to complete it within the next four to six weeks.

I am not at all sure from the initial results that it is having a huge influence and a few more people must be interviewed before we come to a conclusion. I wonder whether we are aiming policy in the right direction. Do we need to do much more research, particularly with regard to how we encourage younger people not to go down the road of smoking? I am not sure we are doing enough research in this area. Does the Department intends to take on any particular programme to examine this issue? We did it with regard to road traffic over a period of ten years and made huge progress. We need to research this issue far more and try to deal with it.