Ms Kathleen O'Meara:

That can be done. On the issue raised by Deputy Humphreys and the related issue raised by Deputy McDonald and Deputy Dooley, it looks on the surface that it makes sense to raise prices. However, I refer to the example of the UK which was pointed out by my colleague. The UK has a specific anti-smuggling strategy in conjunction with an increase in the price of cigarettes. This is a health imperative. We all know that smoking is one of the biggest drivers of health inequality. A person is twice as likely to die of cancer if he or she lives in one of the communities to which the Deputy referred and is three times more likely to have heart disease and stroke. We do not advocate that smokers should be punished nor are we talking about driving them into the arms of the tobacco manufacturers. I remind the Deputy of where those illegal cigarettes are coming from. In many cases these illegal cigarettes are aimed at children in order to get them to start smoking and also at heavy smokers. Much needs to be done to support people in their attempt to quit and not enough is being done to support them. These measures might sound tough but they are necessary when dealing with a very tough problem. I ask the committee to consider carefully the other proposals in our submission which target tobacco industry profits rather than the smoker.