Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

1.In page 9, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following: “Review of operation of Act, Act of 2002 and Act of 2015

9.The Minister shall, 12 months after the passing of this Act, carry out a review of the operation of this Act, the Act of 2002 and the Act of 2015, to also examine:

(a) the regulation of flavouring, packaging, and advertisement of nicotine inhaling products;

(b) the evidence base for calculating licence fees, the appropriateness of fees which have been set, and potential methodologies for calculating such fees;

(c) issues arising from the implementation of the Acts and attempts to circumvent the Acts, such as proxy purchasing; and

(d) the pricing of tobacco products and nicotine inhaling products, including bulk purchasing, and options for standardising tobacco unit prices.”.

We are setting out in this amendment a requirement for the Acts of 2002 and 2015, which are the set of public health Acts regulating tobacco and nicotine products to be reviewed within 12 months. We believe this is necessary to ensure the Acts are functioning well and that their implementation and content is consistent.

In this amendment we have set out a number of areas which we believe need to be examined further with a view to further amendment to these Acts, including regulation of flavourings, standardisation of packaging, regulation of advertising to bring this in line with tobacco products, setting of licence fees as provided for in this Act to ensure they are appropriately priced and that the methodology for setting this fee is adequate and consistent with the aims of the Act, any opportunities which may emerge to circumvent the Act to ensure we close these loopholes if they arise, and the pricing of tobacco products and options for standardised or minimum pricing such as the existing minimum excise duty requirements. We will table this amendment again on Report Stage if it is not accepted, or we will seek to amend it further if accepted. It will include reference to the standardisation of the presentation in retail outlets of tobacco price lists and a review of the mechanisms for updating the minimum excise duty applied to tobacco products.

If the Minister does not accept the amendment, I ask that he commits to the requests in this motion and examine these matters further in a short time period to inform future amendments to these Acts, which we all know are necessary.

We will be supporting an Teachta Shortall's amendments Nos. 3 and 9.