Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their presentations. If one were to listen to what they had to say, one would be convinced that the tobacco industry is a benign industry that is well aware of its social obligations and its obligations to consumers. When one looks at the international evidence, however, one finds that is clearly not the case. There is a strong body of evidence to show that the tobacco industry internationally is quite an insidious invasive industry. It targets younger people. It takes an aggressive targeting approach in Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean and Asia. Some of the tobacco companies to which I refer are represented here. The witnesses have acknowledged that smoking has some health implications. It was accepted in the opening presentation that smoking causes cancer and other illnesses. That is well documented. It is much more than that, however - it is a killer habit which has a devastating impact on people's lives. I think any state is entitled to make reasonable policy decisions, and support them with legislation, to try to reduce the level of smoking in that country. The purpose of plain packaging would be to discourage people from smoking. In addition to discouraging young people from starting to smoke, it would also discourage older people from smoking. The same thing applies to the introduction of graphic design. Anything that makes smoking less attractive is a positive, in my view, as it will not encourage-----