Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Minister, his officials and everybody involved in the production of this legislation. The Minister touched on a number of issues, including the need for us to be more adaptable in order to keep ahead of the tobacco companies and the way in which they are marketing. The new package is just an example of what measures they are resorting to in order to try to tackle this kind of legislation.

The Minister needs to focus his efforts on teenagers. It is striking that teenagers, in particular young girls, are taking up smoking or continuing to smoke. We have grown up with the message rammed home to us through images like those shown earlier, but it seems not to be getting through to those who are starting on the path. If we stop them from starting smoking, we stop it fully. Addiction seems to be the only word for this. The Minister expressed the wish that the image might shock those who open the box. However, the very fact they have bought the box in the first place and spent the kind of money necessary to do so shows they are gone beyond that stage. We are dealing with addiction. In the Minister's next focus on this issue, we need to focus in on areas that assist people in tackling that addiction, in the same way we do this with regard to other drugs. Tobacco is a drug that is killing people.

I commend the legislation. There is still a lot of work to be done this area. It cannot just be done by the Legislature, however. It has to be done by everybody involved.

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