Dr. Finbarr O'Connell:

The Chairman asked why we need this legislation. It will help to maintain momentum in reducing smoking further, with the long-term aim of making us tobacco free. God forbid this legislation would not be enacted because that would result in a decrease in the momentum.

In regard to Deputy O'Connor's question, I will not rehearse all of the diseases. Suffice it to say they include all of the diseases from which Irish people suffer and die. Lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer, causing one in five deaths from lung cancer. Smoking is the cause of 95% of Irish lung cancers and it contributes to most of the other cancers. One third of all cancers are directly attributable to smoking. The claim in television advertisements that one in two long-term smokers dies from smoking is based on evidence. It is a flip of a coin whether a long-term smoker will live or die. Approximately 16 years are lost on average, which is a considerable number. In my clinic the figure is much worse than that. I regularly sit down with people in their 40s or early 50s - people with young children - to tell them they have incurable lung cancer. That is unfortunately an all too common scenario these days. As several members have said, we all know the evidence about smoking and health.

It is heartening to hear positive feedback from the committee and Deputy Ó Caoláin's comment that there is no issue with the legislation either in this room or the Oireachtas in general.