Mr. Mike Ridgway:

I agree 100% with Deputy Byrne that smoking is a killer, which is why I am a non-smoker and have not smoked a cigarette for 50 years.

Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor made a point on the appeal of branding and packaging to the consumer. I was deeply involved in a long discussion on the tobacco products directive in Brussels. We supported the elimination of the lipstick pack because the Deputy is right that that product was sending the wrong message to the wrong section of the market.
An issue that did arise - I hope the Deputy will take this as a positive point - was how we defined appeal and attractiveness. That issue has been debated long and hard, yet it is inconclusive because it is so subjective. It is an aspect that has led to the tobacco products directive which Ireland has followed and which will be finalised in the coming weeks to take the steps of increasing the size of health warnings, deal with the other regulatory aspects of lipstick-type packs and so on.
Let me give a United Kingdom perspective on profitability from the illicit trade. It is calculated that one container coming into the United Kingdom from eastern Europe will generate a profit of £1 million. It is that level of profit generation that leads to the spin-off criminal activities in the form of people smuggling, fuelling the drugs trade, prostitution and so on. It is the loss of this revenue and the profits that can be gained by others that result in the law enforcement agencies having bigger problems than they already have. I cannot comment on the Irish view, but from the UK police perspective, it has been very vocal in its concerns about what the introduction of plain packaging would do to assist the criminal fraternity and it has written letters to The Timesnewspaper and issued other publications on this point.
Regarding Senator Jillian van Turnhout's point - I ask her to take this as a positive contribution - when I was in full-time employment, my company was a German firm. I spent a good deal of time in Germany and was very impressed by the methods of communicating the problems of tobacco to young people there. There were extensive programmes which involved taking schoolchildren into hospitals for two or three days and showing them graphic illustrations of what smoking did to the body. I believe, in addition to what the Senator said, that having an improved education system for children of that age group would be a very beneficial policy to follow, rather than what we are talking about today, namely, the introduction of excessive regulation when there is no evidence that it will work.