Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The legislation before us today is necessitated by the European Court of Justice ruling on minimum pricing. I am impressed by the response to the court ruling in that while the legislation accepts the court ruling, it deals very well with it in that the Bill prevents cigarettes being distributed free as an incentive with another product, tobacco product or service. It prevents that type of sinister marketing that would be dangerous and prevents making cigarettes available at a reduced price in that scenario. The Bill is a good response to the court ruling in that respect.

The court ruling does not prevent the imposition of excise duties with the health policy objective. I presume and would be strongly of the view that we should continue that policy and one assumes that has been the case in recent budgets and will continue to be the case. To that extent, the Bill is an intelligent, proactive response to a court ruling based on a very fine and defined principle relating to competition.

I also accept the point that was made very well by Deputy Catherine Murphy that public health issues like alcohol and cigarette consumption need to be looked at in the context that where there is absolute evidence of a health scare or a threat to people's health, one would assume that would impinge on court rulings. The Bill gets over the issue very well.

The statistics relating to cigarette smoking in Ireland are frightening. The Bill responds to those statistics and we must continue to respond to them. One in four Irish people smokes, which is a frighteningly high figure. A total of 5,000 deaths arise from cigarette smoking annually and one half of all long-term smokers will die prematurely due to a smoking-related illness. In 2008, smoking was responsible for 36,000 hospital admissions costing €280 million. These are frightening statistics that merit repeating and putting on the record of the House and into the public arena any time we get the opportunity. They also deserve a very strong emergency response from us as legislators and the Government. It would be churlish and remiss of me if I did not acknowledge that the initiative by the past Government in respect of the smoking ban has been an unqualified success and is to be welcomed. Not only has it acted as a preventative measure, it has acted as a significant support to those who are trying to give up cigarettes. One of the difficulties people trying to recover from the addiction faced in the past was that when they went into public places where everyone around them was smoking, refraining from smoking cigarettes put an extraordinary strain on them. That challenge has at least been removed which is to be welcomed, apart from the other objective merits of the measure.

There is no doubt that in addition to the ban, all empirical data from the World Bank and the World Health Organization, WHO, would suggest that there is an absolute relationship or correlation between the price of cigarettes and the numbers of people who smoke and, very important, the numbers of young people who will start smoking. It is to the credit of Government that we are continuing a policy of a high level of excise duty on cigarettes and this has been included in the current budget. Studies confirm that consumption decreases by between 5% and 7% for a 10% real increase. The WHO states that increasing the price of cigarettes is the single most effective way to encourage quitting and prevent children from starting smoking. I also welcome the fact that graphic images will soon appear on cigarette packets. The Minister referred to it earlier in his opening Second Stage speech. This will have an impact to some degree as have the images of car accidents.

The smuggling of cheap cigarettes into the country is a significant issue. Coming from a Border constituency, I suspect that it would happen irrespective of price. Even if we had not pursued a policy of increasing cigarette prices as a preventative exercise and were cigarettes to be at a lower price, contraband or smuggled cigarettes would still come into the country at a lower price. The response to smuggling is not to decrease the price to compete with the smugglers but rather to stop smuggling. I urge the Government to continue putting all the machinery in place, remove the bureaucratic impediments to dealing with smuggling that seem to exist and work at European level to achieve this.

I welcome the fact that the legislation deals with efforts to give out free cigarettes or have prices below the minimum price as an incentive with other products to get people hooked. In the very fine research carried out by the Oireachtas Library & Research Service, I see that P. J. Carroll & Company states that 25% of cigarettes smoked are bought on the black market, which is a frightening figure because there is also evidence to suggest there might be extra additives and dangerous chemicals in those cigarettes which is of concern.

The health problems caused by smoking cost the Exchequer more than €500 million and kill 7,000 people per year. All of the figures are frightening and unacceptable. Deputy Catherine Murphy related them back to the death of her father. Although, thankfully, I did not have that immediate experience, it was the case in the extended family and we all know where this is the case among neighbours or friends. It is horrific to watch. While pricing and graphic images on cigarette packets are crucial, as a reformed smoker, I think the thrust of our anti-smoking efforts should be a positive agenda. We should accentuate the degree to which not smoking improves one's life.

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