David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief as I have only a few points to make. Youghal is a town in my constituency in which Walter Raleigh lived for a while. He has much to answer for because he was responsible for bringing tobacco to this part of the world from the Americas, or at least made it very popular in the mid-1500s. He lost his head afterwards but it was too late as the damage had been done. This legislation will amend the existing legislation to comply with the ruling of the European Court of Justice and will empower the Minister to tackle brand imagery and put pictures on cigarette packets. This has had an impact in other countries where it has been introduced and is very welcome. The number of people who die from cigarette smoking every year has been estimated to be more than 5,000, which is a significant figure, and the cost has been estimated at €23 billion over the next decade. This is a colossal amount of money that could do much for the health service if it was available to us.

The possibility of introducing a bar code on cigarette packs to ensure the Garda can tell quickly whether a packet of cigarettes is legal has been proposed to me and might be worth considering. This proposal has been put forward by some people in the retail industry. It would mean that gardaí could have a scanner with which to scan cigarette packs sold in markets and various other places. If a packet did not have this bar code, they could confiscate the cigarettes. That is my understanding of how this might work and it might be worth doing.

I am informed that the Irish Tobacco Manufacturers' Advisory Committee maintains that there has been a dramatic decrease in fines handed down for the selling and smuggling of illegal cigarettes. I support the call by Retailers Against Smuggling for a minimum fine of €10,000 to stop this epidemic. The latest figures from the Revenue Commissioners list of defaulters show the average fine for the selling of illegal cigarettes dropped by 20% in the second quarter and the average fine for smuggling cigarettes is down by 37.9%. That is sending out the wrong message. We need to increase the penalties for the smuggling of illegal cigarettes into the State.

We should be targeting young people and one way of doing this is to concentrate on fitness, sport, games and positive healthy living in our schools. If a youngster is involved in competitive sport, games or activities, such as athletics, swimming, canoeing, rowing, football or hurling, which demand physical exercise and exertion, it is good for him or her and means that in order to excel, that person will be deterred from taking up cigarettes. Top-class athletes do not smoke for that reason. I encourage us to look at wellness in our society and to encourage the concepts of wellness, fitness, health, exercise and activity, particularly among young people. That is all I want to say on this issue at this point.

See this speech in context