Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate, which has reflected an excellent interest and encouragement of our younger people because cigarette manufacturers and the advertisers of cigarette consumption target them not only in Europe, but all over the world. I recall watching a documentary on BBC2 about British American Tobacco corporation, which showed how the company cynically got around advertising laws in Nigeria and other countries with huge populations and presented corner shops in villages and towns in the shape and colour of a cigarette box such as a Benson & Hedges corner shop. Little boys aged ten distributed cigarettes and promotional lottery-type tickets and if people bought a pack or part of a pack, they would be entered in a draw for a fridge or a television. It was disappointing to find out at that time that a former chairman of the Bank of Ireland was appointed chairman of British American Tobacco, which engaged in such activities to promote its sales.

I am a reformed smoker and perhaps people should not listen to me. I stopped smoking on 19 August 1980 and I estimate I smoked 87,912 cigarettes in the previous ten years but when I stopped, my head and my lungs cleared.

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