Dr. Axel Gietz:

I think we should stick to the facts. The United States has been mentioned and the Centres for Disease Control is quite clear about the type of education. The young ladies from Tipperary who were here last week confirmed that it will work. It is not about spreading fear nor about informing that smoking is bad for one's health because everyone knows that. It is about addressing the triggers that get young people in a situation where they will accept their first cigarette. It is a case of making them resist these triggers such as peer pressure, family example, insecurity, low self-esteem, which are the elements of intelligent education that work, rather than fear-mongering when everyone knows that smoking is obviously not good for you.

Our involvement or alleged involvement in illicit trade is an international question I would like to knock on the head. When the Senator speaks of tobacco companies supplying the illicit market it is not the companies who are sitting here. It is the companies who are producing the product category that is called illicit whites. These are legitimate companies in the countries where they make these cigarettes, be it in Russia, in the Middle East, in other places. They are produced solely for the purpose of export-smuggling into high tax excise countries such as the UK and Ireland. The fact that they are locally legitimate companies does not mean that the trade is legitimate. To make my point clear, the illicit whites do not come from the companies who are here.

I wish to make a final comment. I firmly believe equating nicotine with heroin and cocaine flies in the face of common sense.