Mr. Gavin Maguire:

In terms of the points made about the general prevalence of smoking, internationally our figures compare quite favourably. I do not have the European figures to hand but have noted that we are at the lower end of the prevalence scale. According to the figures that I quoted there has been a steady decline and we think that we are moving in the right direction. We contend that a strong legislative base in this country - which will be further strengthened by the Bill - is a significant element in the decline.

I shall move on to some other questions. A question was asked about the prevalence of smoking but I have touched on the matter.

I have already answered the question on the penalties contained in the Bill. Deputy Neville asked what we are doing to help people addicted to smoking so I shall go into detail about our broad range of strategies. As I said in my opening statement, we have introduced various strategies to deal with the problem. Everybody is reasonably aware of our quit campaign. It has proven to be effective because there is a direct correlation between the scheme and the number of people seeking smoking cessation services. We provide a significant level of smoking cessation services. We also provide a quit line as a gateway service to the smoking cessation services. We use multiple opportunities to engage with patients and there is patient contact both in hospitals and primary care with regard to getting smokers to avail of smoking cessation services. We rigorously enforce the tobacco legislation through our environment health services. We had 38 prosecutions in 2013 and we will achieve a similar if not a greater amount in 2014.

We have a broad strategy in terms of tobacco reduction and two questions were asked. The first question was what we were doing for people who are already addicted. In terms of our overall strategy, we have the quit line, nicotine replacement products that are available free of charge on a medical card and we have a significant amount of smoking cessation services.

The other question in terms of tobacco reduction was what are we doing to stop children taking up the habit of smoking in the first place. The broad range of our activities are focused on the area. Our health promotion staff engage as far as they can, and within the resources available, by going into schools to alert and explain the dangers of tobacco smoke to children.

A significant element of enforcement is spent ensuring that retailers comply with the restrictions on sales to minors which forms a significant element of our prosecutions. In fact 17 of our prosecutions in 2013 were in this area alone. A range of measures have been designed to reduce the number of people experiencing their first cigarette. I do not think there is anything else to discuss.