Mr. Chris Macey:

Let me respond to Deputy Sandra McLellan's questions. Ms Martina Anderson, has been fantastic and stood up to what Ms O'Meara identified as the massive industry lobbing in the European Union. Her work has had a deep impact, but having said that, the Irish Heart Foundation would have been quite disappointed with the voting on the tobacco products directive. On a positive note, the graphic warnings on plain packets will make them much stronger, but on the issue of slim cigarettes which are aimed at young girls, MEPs from other countries turned. One tobacco company alone had 161 lobbyists working on this issue, whereas it was registered in the EU register of lobbyists as having only seven. It was the fourth largest supplier of cigarettes in this country. Let us think of how many people are working on co-ordinating the anti-plain packaging campaign.
Some 78% of smokers start to smoke before the age of 18 years, which is the reason the tobacco industry knows it must get new customers. Tobacco products kill their customers and the industry must replace them. As somebody mentioned, it needs 50 new smokers a day, most of whom will be children and young people because they account for the majority who start to smoke. It was mentioned in the context of addiction to illegal drugs that they were not branded, but people still use them. We must remember that the main purpose of the legislation is to stop young people from starting to smoke. For people who are already addicted, it is another issue. It has been shown in Australia that there has been a 23% reduction in the numbers smoking outdoors; therefore, the packaging used is having an impact on current smokers. We also know that cigarettes are addictive. There is evidence that the tobacco industry is making them more addictive by increasing the nicotine content to hook people and frustrate tobacco control efforts.
Deputy Seamus Healy asked if the use of plain packaging would reduce smoking rates. As my colleague, Ms O'Meara said, we carried out research with focus groups of young people that showed that in 100% of cases those who had not started to smoke were less likely to start; that those who had started but were not addicted would stop immediately and that those who were addicted were going to try to stop. That was the message across 100% of the people to whom we spoke. When they spoke about the packaging currently used, they talked about how it made them feel more sophisticated, richer, more glamorous and cooler, whereas the plain package would actually turn that concept of peer pressure on its head by making them fear judgment and shame from their peers and saying they would quit immediately. As far as we are concerned, what more conclusive evidence could young people give us?
Let me deal with the question of smuggling and counterfeiting. The tobacco industry and the groups it funds bang away at the argument that plain packets will increase the number of counterfeit cigarettes, but the Garda Síochána and Revenue are absolutely categorical that there is no evidence that plain packaging fuels smuggling in any way. Counterfeiting is not an issue because only a very small amount of illicit tobacco coming into the country is counterfeit, the vast majority comes from the legal industry. Let me give an example. Exports of cigarettes to Andorra increased from 13 million cigarettes in 1993 to 1.52 billion in 1997, the equivalent of 130 cigarettes a day for every Andorran man, woman and child. Most of these cigarettes ended up back in the United Kingdom on the illicit market. As Senator John Crown asked: "Who makes the profit from that?" The legal tobacco industry makes the profit. The Minister for Finance said in November 2013 that he was concerned about the legitimate tobacco industry being involved in illicit trade. There are repeated remarks about this, in particular, in the United Kingdom. The Chairman of the UK Public Accounts Committee, Margaret Hodge, MP stated:

The Department [HMRC] has failed to challenge properly those UK tobacco manufacturers who turn a blind eye to the avoidance of UK tax by supplying more of their products to European countries than the legitimate market in those countries could possibly require. The tobacco then finds its way back into the UK market without tax being paid.

The supply of brands of hand rolling tobacco to some countries in 2011 exceeded legitimate demand by 240%. That highlights where the fuelling of this illicit trade is taking place. The tobacco companies state the smuggling rate is around the 30% mark at a time when it has been reduced from 16% in 2009 to 13% now. That is not to say we do not have a problem because the average rate of smuggling in EU countries is 11%, whereas it is 13% in Ireland, but it is nothing like what the tobacco industry states it is.