Mr. Vincent Jennings:

The Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association welcomes the opportunity accorded to it to present its views to the joint committee on the heads of the Bill. The World Health Organization has published advice to governments that they enlist the support of civil society organisations and, specifically, retail organisations when seeking to enact and enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship activities. We make reference to this advice as it is our opinion that the authors of Tobacco-Free Ireland, the tobacco policy review group, elected not to consult any representative of the 13,000 registered tobacco retailers during their deliberations. There is a reference within the report to consultation with stakeholders and the CSNA would like to state this consultation was incomplete and contrary to the advice of the World Health Organization. As the review group made a number of recommendations for legislative change, we believe that, in line with Cabinet guidelines, a regulatory impact assessment, RIA, should have been conducted by the policy review group and provided alongside the report which was adopted as Government policy one month after its publication. Neither the committee nor any of the interested parties invited to make submissions on the Bill has had the benefit of an RIA to accompany the heads of the Bill. We consider this to be a significant deficiency in the consultative process.
This Bill, in style and purpose, owes much to the Australian Bill. We need to remind the committee that a comprehensive suite of measures was introduced alongside that Bill to provide for the desired outcome: increases in the already significant reduction in smoking initiation and prevalence. These measures included: an annual increase in each of the following four years of 25% in excise; the reduction of duty-free allowances from 250 cigarettes to 50; pictorial warnings, in existence since 2006, which were revised and enlarged; some 85 million Australian dollars for social media messaging, of which 28 million Australian dollars was for high-risk and disadvantaged groups; 100,000 prescriptions for nicotine patches; an exemption from sales tax for NRT in non-pharmacy outlets; additional subsidies for lower strength NRT; new penalties specifically for tobacco smugglers; while legislation was enacted to restrict Internet advertising of tobacco products. We remind the joint committee that the level of smuggling of tobacco products in Australia was 4% in 2011. The Australian Government has committed to review the first 12 months since the introduction of these measures and the head of the preventive health task force, Professor Daube, has been quoted as saying: "I don’t think anybody reputable would make claims about adult prevalence until we have the next national government-run survey."
The CSNA requested sales data from our counterparts in Australia. This data - provided by retailers, not tobacco industry sources - showed that in the first six months of 2013, when compared with the figures for 2012, overall tobacco sales volumes had increased in the stores surveyed by 4.5% in units, from 9.616 million units to 10.047 million units sold and from 124.3 million Australian dollars to 134.6 million Australian dollars, an increase of 8.2% in value. The worrying aspect of these figures, for the Exchequer and retailers, was that there had been a dramatic increase in the value and sub-value categories which had increased by 57% collectively in terms of volume and a significant additional 22% of sales in the roll-your-own, RYO, category. This coincided with decreases in the premium and mainstream ranges which had decreased by 9.1%. Cigars, both wet and dry, had declined by 90% and 32% in quantity. Were these down-trading figures to be replicated in Ireland following the introduction of plain packaging, the effect would be significantly disadvantageous for our members, but it would have little or no measurable financial impact on the multinational tobacco companies from which we source our tobacco products. This is owing to the unique position the State has provided for these companies, courtesy of the Finance Act.
It is an offence for retailers to sell cigarettes above the recommended retail price, RRP, which is determined by the companies. Regardless of whether we purchase from the companies or are supplied by distributors or cash and carry outlets, at higher wholesale prices, we must sell at the RRP. The companies have subsidised and manipulated the RRP within the value sector. They have stimulated demand through a variety of activities, including holding the RRP subsequent to budget increases, and are perfectly positioned to meet the expected additional demand for the value sector range if plain packaging is introduced. Retailers will find that the wholesale prices will increase for this range, yet owing to the unique position the Government has provided for these companies, they will by able to fix the RRP at existing levels.
We ask the joint committee to consider a number of other matters that we have identified as weaknesses in achieving the dual purposes of reducing harm to children and preventing the continuation of the deception of existing smokers. There is an urgent need, not provided for in the Tobacco-Free Irelandreport, to outlaw proxy purchasing, that is, the purchase of tobacco by an adult on behalf on minors. This is part of the French criminal code. We believe society can register its disapproval of smoking by minors by mirroring our own laws on the attempted purchase and possession in a public place of alcohol and introduce similar prohibitions for tobacco products.
If the joint committee accepts the proposition that the usage by tobacco companies of various colours on their packaging is a subliminal attempt to deceive consumers into believing one colour is lighter or safer, it is illogical to continue to permit these colours to be continued to be referred to on each occasion the consumer requests such a product using that exact colour as the description for his or her purchase.
We are also most concerned that there is no attempt in the Bill to dilute the effect that duty paid products in another jurisdiction will have on the public health policy of the State. Figures provided by Revenue indicate that 330 million cigarettes and an unrecorded amount of RYO products were imported legitimately last year into the State. The presence of this significant number of branded packs is in sharp contrast to the determination of the Australian Government to give its Bill the maximum level of effectiveness. The CSNA urges the joint committee to recommend to the Government that it take appropriate action to reduce the personal allowance for travellers entering the country, similar to the actions taken by Finland to defend its public health policies.
We remind the joint committee that the new EUTPD, not this Bill, has increased the size of public health warnings to 65%. This is the same figure that is stipulated in the Bill. The TPD also provides for the elimination of the lipstick packet by which the Minister was justifiably outraged.
We believe the joint committee should recommend that the Department consider increasing, over a three year period, the minimum age at which young persons may legally purchase tobacco products from 18 years to 21. This would extend protection against initiation into a cycle of sickness and ill-health for those children currently aged 17 years and under.
We have outlined our objections and request for clarification on a number of aspects of the Bill. We need to have clarification of the meaning of "tobacco products", as the definition provided in the Bill is at odds with the definition in the Public Health Tobacco Act 2002 which includes filter-tips and the like.

We cannot accept that retailers should be penalised on the double in being fined and taken off the register for an unspecified period. Any implementation of this Bill should ensure full consultation with retailer groupings, as well as Revenue, to co-ordinate crediting. The absence of an offence for purchasing branded product by an individual, provided for in this Bill, is tantamount to facilitating receiving stolen goods. Retailers need to be permitted to engage in collective bargaining through their trade associations with suppliers. This would introduce a balance into what is now an uneven and unequal relationship. This is not only permitted but encouraged by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Retailers need to be provided with assistance to prepare the ground for a tobacco-free society. The Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association, CSNA, requests this Bill is deferred until all of the above measures are put in place to protect children, the State, consumers and retailers.

Late last night I uncovered that the National Pensions Reserve Fund holds €21 million worth of equities and bonds in tobacco companies. I have provided to the committee the full listings of these shares. In these straitened times and requiring a stimulus for properly costed and well thought through tobacco control measures, I suggest the committee requests the direction of this €21 million, which is tainted money, to be directed towards tobacco control immediately. What is particularly of note is the fact that one of the shareholdings is in Swedish Match which is the manufacturer of Snus, a banned product across the European Union.