Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to welcome all the witnesses. I keep asking myself why some people smoke. I have never smoked, so I do not know what a cigarette tastes like. My father used to smoke 40 cigarettes a day and he died of lung cancer at the age of 74. In fairness to my father, however, he never smoked in the house, which was a good thing.

Some 5,200 Irish people die every year from smoking related diseases. Smoking is responsible for almost one in five of all deaths. To maintain smoking rates at their current level, the tobacco industry needs to recruit 50 new smokers every day. It is targeting our young children to achieve that. Irish smokers start smoking at the youngest age in Europe, just 16 years of age. Smoking is the number one cause of preventable deaths in Ireland. It costs the health service €650 million.

Cigarette packaging is a key method of marketing a message to our children. They are thin, slender and pink cigarette packets are aimed at young girls. The tobacco control policy of successive Irish governments has followed World Health Organization best practice. As far as I am concerned, it has worked. In 1998, 33% of the population smoked, while today the figure is 22%.

I wish to ask Mr. Donaldson a few questions. Where do the ingredients of cigarettes come from and should they be regulated? Are e-cigarettes affecting the sale of normal cigarettes? How many jobs are directly or indirectly supported by the tobacco industry in Ireland? What control does the industry have over retail stores to keep tobacco products out of public view?