Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming here. Over the past number of weeks I have learned a lot about smoking. There is not a day passes that I do not comment that your health is your wealth, and smoking can seriously damage your health.

As was stated over the past number of weeks, over 5,200 people die in Ireland each year from tobacco-related disease. I did not realise that it was the third most common reason for acute hospital admission. They are keeping the doctors in business. It is the most common reason to visit a GP, which speaks for itself.

Half of all smokers will die from tobacco-related diseases. If that does not put people off, I do not know what would. My father died of lung cancer at the early age of 74. Some 90% of lung cancers and 30% of all cancers are caused by smoking. One quarter of all deaths from coronary heart disease and 11% of all stroke deaths are attributed to smoking and smokers are two to three times more likely to suffer from a heart attack compared with a non-smoker.

According to a survey commissioned by the Office of Tobacco Control which really shocked me, 78% of smokers start before they reach the age of 18, and 53% before the age of 15. As a parent of three - two girls and a boy - it is just the two girls who smoked. I am convinced the reason they started to smoke was peer pressure. There were a couple of girls in here last week who stated that, in a school yard or in a corner, the most popular thing for a girl was to have a cigarette in one hand and a coloured-labelled package in the other. That is alarming. In 2010, 7.9% of children aged ten to 14 reported smoking cigarettes every week. That is most alarming. That is something we will have to push against. The good news was that the percentage of children aged ten to 17 who reported never smoking has increased, from 50.8% in 1998 to 73.5% in 2010.

Professor Clancy stated that, in international studies, price is the most important measure in tobacco control and has been the most successful tool in reducing the prevalence of smoking, from 34% in 1998 to 26% in 2010, representing a 22% relative reduction. With the laundering of illegal tobacco, it all merges together. I wonder can he elaborate. If we keep hiking the price up, will that stop people smoking or will it help the market in smuggled cigarettes? As I stated, your health is your wealth. It is important that we discourage young people from smoking.