Mr. Chris Fitzgerald:

We are responding to it. We have not got into a detailed discussion about that element of the proposed directive but the Commission's view was that it had to try to deal with all the elements of tobacco sale uniformly, taking the view that there can be stricter provisions for one element without addressing another element. It bears some further scrutiny with regard to the extent to which younger people are smoking rolling tobacco as opposed to manufactured cigarettes. I take the point.

Regardless of how the tobacco product is presented for sale, if we are successful, from a health perspective, in meeting our ultimate objective of de-normalising tobacco consumption, we should be heading to an end of eliminating tobacco consumption. That will clearly have an effect on people with an economic interest in the sale of tobacco. The difficulty is that on one level we are coming from a public health protection perspective, and other economic arguments must be balanced in this regard. That is one of the principal reasons the Commission used article 114 as the basis for the directive, as it is about levelling the market's playing pitch.

I will think about what was said and perhaps we can take the point up in Brussels. We have not got into the detail in any great extent.