Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I propose to share time with Deputy Mick Wallace. This Bill is welcome. Anyone who has seen a member of the family suffer and die from lung cancer will know that seeing someone trying to survive on an eggcup of air in the lungs is enough to put one off smoking for life. Professor Clancy in St. James's Hospital articulates in graphic detail the job he has in dealing with people with lung cancer. The Bill is a step in the right direction and the photographic warnings are quite graphic. The evidence appears to be that they work. They must be targeted at the group most likely to commence smoking. I started smoking when I was a teenager and into my early 20s. It was so difficult to give up that I promised myself I would never do it myself again. When people embark upon it, they do not realise how addictive it is. The younger age group must be targeted. This can be done with photographic warnings and with health promotion and prevention campaigns.

This is considered international best practice and the World Health Organisation convention on tobacco control recommends full-colour pictures are included on the packaging and the label. This Bill brings Ireland into line with the international consensus on a critical public health issue. Evidence from countries that have introduced the warnings show a greater impact from graphics than from text alone. Text had an impact when it was first introduced but people have stopped noticing it . We can learn the lesson that images on packages must change over time so that they continue to have an impact. This is a cheap and effective strategy in reducing tobacco consumption and it saves lives. It makes cigarette smoking less attractive to those who are most likely to take up smoking and to smokers. The imagery has a nagging effect that will be helpful. The Eurobarometer survey showed that nearly 50% of smokers in Belgium between the ages of 15 and 17 years thought pictorial images on the packaging made smoking less attractive.

Smoking is the largest cause of preventable death and disease in Ireland, killing half of all lifetime users. It should be the single highest priority in health promotion policy. It is shocking to think that 30% of people in Ireland smoke. I did not think it was that high and I thought it had dropped considerably. I remember sitting in council chambers with some of the people who are Members of the Dáil. I remember Deputy Bernard Durkan with his pipe and Deputy Stagg smoking one cigarette after another. That was acceptable practice in the council chamber.

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