Mr. John Freda:

Before doing anything else, the Government must prioritise and focus on stopping children accessing cheap tobacco in the unregulated market.

The Government should establish a targeted and comprehensive programme in schools to tackle peer pressure, which is a recognised key driver of youth smoking. Ireland has one of the highest youth smoking rates for the under 15 years age cohort in Europe. When we compare the uptake of smoking by youths in Ireland and Germany, the Eurobarometer data in 2012 shows the uptake among the under 15 years age cohort in Germany was 17% compared with the 28% uptake in Ireland, when a decade ago the levels were similar. We believe an education programme for primary and secondary level school pupils could be successful here in Ireland. We respectfully ask the committee members to consider this as one of a number of serious alternatives to the plain packaging proposal as they formulate their recommendations to the Minister for Health.

There is absolutely no credible evidence that plain packaging has had a positive health impact in Australia or that it would have such an impact in Ireland. More than 14 months after its implementation in Australia, there is still no official government assessment that plain packing has worked. In fact, the absolute lack of evidence reaffirms the point that packaging is not the reason that people start or even stop smoking. The introduction of plain packaging would increase children's access to tobacco and in particular to children in disadvantages parts. There are proven ways to reduce further the youth smoking rate in Ireland and these should be prioritised. We do not dispute the risks associated with tobacco use. Plain packaging legislation will not help reduce smoking rates in Ireland and it is for these reasons we strongly oppose plain packaging. We would be happy to discuss them with the chairman and members.

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for their time.