Mr. Andrew Meagher:

My name is Andrew Meagher and I am the managing director of John Player & Sons Limited. I am joined by my colleague, Dr. Axel Gietz, director of group corporate affairs at Imperial Tobacco. I can assist the committee with issues regarding the Irish market and Dr. Gietz can answer questions on any broader corporate matters.

John Player & Sons Limited has a long and proud history in Ireland and employs 70 people. Imperial Tobacco also operates a tobacco factory in Mullingar, which employs 120 people. We are a legitimate company authorised by the Government and Revenue to sell a lawful regulated product to adults. We fully support the Minister’s objective that children should not smoke. Nobody working in our company wants children to smoke - neither ours nor anybody else’s. I am grateful for this opportunity to debunk the myth that we use our brands to entice Irish children to smoke. I have worked for 20 years in John Player & Sons Limited. Over that time, neither I, nor any of my colleagues, has ever once developed or designed a brand or even contemplated such a thing with the purpose of attracting children to smoke.

While sharing the Minister’s objective, we hold a different view from him as to what is the most effective way to prevent minors from smoking. The Minister believes plain packaging would prevent children from starting to smoke because they are influenced by cigarette packaging but there is no credible evidence to support this contention, either from Australia or anywhere else.

Even the Chief Medical Officer, when he met the committee before Christmas, accepted the absence of evidence from Australia. He said, "We have to await a proper evaluation", and I fully agree.

Ireland has followed a high tax, high regulation approach to tobacco control for many years and yet Irish smoking rates remain consistently high. According to EU statistics, Ireland's 2012 smoking rate of 29% is the same as it was in 2006. Some 28% of young Irish people start smoking at 15 years and younger compared with the EU average of 17%. The ban on press advertising, the ban on smoking in pubs, the ban on ten packs, the ban on display of tobacco in shops and significant excise increases have not had any measurable impact on smoking rates. Ireland's tobacco control model is simply not working. However, alternative approaches based on education and instruction rather than bans appear to be much more successful.

The German tobacco control strategy, which is education based, has produced striking results. It permits billboard and cinema advertising of tobacco. Tobacco products are openly displayed in German shops and yet youth smoking initiation rates are 17% in Germany compared with 28% in Ireland. In America, the Centre for Disease Control recommends tobacco use prevention education programmes in schools.

There are three predictable consequences of plain packaging that would negatively affect the entire community. The black market would grow, the Exchequer, legitimate industry and retailers would lose revenue without any decline in consumption levels as tobacco tourism flourishes, and Ireland's international business reputation would be undermined. As we sit here today, criminals are busily selling illicit white cigarettes on Moore Street in complete violation of every single tobacco control measure that this country has ever introduced, including selling to children. The irony is that if this Bill were to be passed, organised crime gangs would have the unique selling point of being the only supplier of branded packs in the country and this could lead to increased sales of illicit white brands on Moore Street and other street markets throughout the country. While 79% of the retail price of cigarettes goes directly to the Exchequer, there will be no such contribution from the branded packs that will continue to be sold on Moore Street or at Balbriggan market, regardless of this Bill.

A second consequence is that while the Minister intends that smokers can only buy a pack of John Player Blue in a plain pack in Ireland, Irish holidaymakers or day travellers can buy the same branded pack for literally half the price in Spain and Portugal. One assumes that this fear of tobacco tourism is the reason that the Department of Health stated in an EU submission in 2010 that “the introduction of generic or plain packaging must be on the basis of robust evidence. If such a measure is to be introduced, it should be mandatory and there should be a harmonized approach across all Member States." Instead, we now have a solo run by Ireland despite failing to come up with the robust evidence that the Department itself called for in 2010.

A third consequence is that the State would send a clear message to the international business community that their valuable intellectual property would not be protected. Who would invest in Ireland when, without robust evidence and when other less draconian alternatives are available, the State proceeds to seize a company's assets? The fact that a regulatory impact assessment has not even been conducted in advance of this proposal will surely set alarm bells ringing in the headquarters of Irish and foreign multinationals.

The Minister has correctly lauded the model of universal health insurance as applied in the Netherlands because it delivers results. This same approach should be applied to tobacco control - learn and adopt from what works and delivers results rather than trying to implement a policy that is as yet unproven, has been abandoned by the EU and brings with it too many negative consequences.

While John Player is opposed to plain packaging, we are not in any way opposed to preventing minors from smoking. However, this proposed measure must be reconsidered for the reasons already outlined. There is no robust evidence that it would achieve its stated aim, there are too many negative consequences and there are proven alternative education-based solutions from other jurisdictions that deliver reductions in minors smoking. The criteria for introducing new laws should be based on objective fact, real world robust evidence and demonstrable results. There is no evidence, there are no results and no regulatory impact assessment was conducted to justify this Bill.

This does not mean we cannot and should not immediately implement measures to prevent minors from smoking. We can do so by implementing programmes to give minors the life skills to be able to say "No" to peer pressure when it comes to tobacco use or indeed other habits, by preventing minors from accessing tobacco by prosecuting any retailer that sells tobacco to those under age and by resourcing the enforcement authorities to put the criminals who sell illegal cigarettes out of business. I thank the committee. Dr. Gietz and I are happy to answer any questions.