Dr. Helen McAvoy:

It is very hard to say. We only have one year of data from the Healthy Ireland survey in terms of smoking patterns in adults, so it is going to take us a little time to understand the ways in which the pandemic period may have influenced people's smoking patterns. There have also been challenges in doing the surveys during the pandemic in terms of face-to-face interviews and so on. It is going to take us a bit of time to understand fully the implications.

To circle back to the Deputy’s question in regard to tobacco-related deaths, I do not believe we are past the peak of the number or rate of tobacco-related deaths. We are still seeing very frightening increases in the number of women with lung cancer relating to women who took up smoking in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, when they were actively targeted by the tobacco industry, marketed to and provided with products that were suggested as being lighter, lower tar or less harmful. This is the long-term legacy effect of it. We can see this from some of the marketing and the patterns of uptake that happened, particularly with women in the 1960s and 1970s, where women were far less likely to smoke and then started to catch up with the male figures. I do not believe we are past the peak of deaths.