Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for sharing her time with me.

The ban on the display and advertising of tobacco products in shops came into effect on 1 July. It is a very welcome and progressive measure which, as Sinn Féin spokesperson on health and children, I fully support. It complements the workplace smoking ban which has been so successful in helping to create a healthier environment and in discouraging smoking. The impact of smoking is widely agreed to be one of the greatest health challenges facing humanity. It is estimated that across the 32 counties of Ireland 9,500 people die every year from smoking-related illnesses. This is part of a truly shocking worldwide death toll. The World Health Organisation says that tobacco causes approximately 5.4 million deaths a year. Smoking will kill 6.5 million people in 2015 and that number is projected to rise to 8.3 million in 2030. Every 6.5 seconds a current or former smoker dies and an estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide are smokers. These are shocking statistics.

It is a sad fact that smoking is increasing in the developing world and the biggest rise in deaths will occur in low and middle income countries. That is a terrible indictment of the tobacco manufacturers who push their products on children and on the poorest people in the world. The history of that industry is a record of shame beginning with the use of slaves to harvest and process tobacco and continuing today with the spread of addiction and its impact on human health. The tobacco industry does not have the power and influence it once had and there is greater awareness of the health consequences of smoking.

The damage smoking causes to the health of individuals also imposes a significant burden on health systems, including our own. A reduction in smoking is essential for improved public health and provision of public health services. Considering all of that and taking into account the need for constant vigilance and concerted efforts to combat smoking in the most effective ways possible it is extremely disappointing to see the Government bringing forward provisions in this Bill which water down the penalties for breaches of the law relating to the advertisement, sale, and display of tobacco products in shops. What signal does this send out when the latest survey from the Office of Tobacco Control shows that some 40% of shop retailers and 63% of licensed premises are willing to sell cigarettes to minors? While there has been some improvement in those figures since 2007 it is a very high rate and shows that breaches of the law are widespread. Such breaches help to ensure that children have ready access to cigarettes and begin an addiction that in many cases will be lifelong, injurious to health in most, and fatal in a significant number.

In the Public Health (Tobacco) Act 2002, among the penalties set out is removal from the register and consequent prohibition from the sale of tobacco products for three months for a summary offence and a year for a person convicted of an offence on indictment. This Bill proposes to dilute those penalties. The mandatory tobacco sale prohibition period for offenders is to be changed from three months and one year to a maximum of three months and one year with shorter periods possible at the discretion of the Judiciary. This is not acceptable. When the Bill was published the impression was given that this change affected only those provisions relating to the display for sale of tobacco products, the order for which came into effect on 1 July. Retailers had lobbied the Government arguing that the order would for them cause untenable loss of revenue, closure of shops and loss of jobs. The Government rightly went ahead with the order but apparently as a softener for the retailers signalled that it would reduce the penalties for breach of the law. The impression was that this related to display but my reading of the Bill indicates that it covers all breaches of the principal Act of 2002. I ask the Minister of State to clarify this matter, to which other Deputies have referred and state whether this is the case. If so, it adds insult to the injury intended by the dilution of the penalties signalled.

Sinn Féin opposes sections 3 and 5 of this Bill and will act accordingly. They send out entirely the wrong signal and represent a slackening in the effort to combat smoking and the grave damage it does in our society. I have no difficulty with the other sections of the Bill, relating to duty free and specialist tobacco shops. Those are particular cases and not part of the greater concern about access that I wish to see continued and strengthened if possible.

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