Dr. Helen McAvoy:

I welcome the positive remarks and the clear commitment from the committee members on this issue. They were very heartening.

On the comments on the specifics of the Bill, it is worth considering the point on the 75% warning and considering further the issue of pack size and wrappers for roll-your-own cigarettes. This was mentioned by Mr. Gavin Maguire last week.

Deputy Kelleher mentioned the Marlboro Man. Sadly, I understand that the fourth Marlboro Man passed away in recent months from a tobacco-related disease. It is important to mark that as a story about the real legacy of tobacco advertising.

On the impact in Australia and the quit-line raised by Deputy Ó Caoláin, I have the details of the relevant study to hand. If members permit me, I will detail how it was conducted. It was a whole-of-population interrupted time-series analysis in New South Wales that examined the number of calls that occurred in the months before the introduction of graphic warnings in 2006 and thereafter. It also examined the increase in calls that occurred on and after the introduction of plain packaging. It reported a 78% increase in the number of calls with the introduction of plain packaging, from 363 per week to 651 per week. That is statistically significant. The peak occurred four weeks after the initial appearance of plain packaging and it has been prolonged. With the introduction of graphic health warnings in 2006, there was the same relative increase but the effect was not as prolonged as that observed with the introduction of plain packaging. Some 40 weeks or so after the introduction of plain packaging, there was still a sustained increase in the number of calls to the quit-line. This is significant. We do not have the data yet to indicate what is happening regarding smoking prevalence but the statistics we have are good enough for me at this stage.