James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his support for the tobacco directive in Europe. It was very important form the Irish Presidency point of view in health, along with the cross-border health threats initiative which will allow us to procure vaccines with other countries rather than being a small nation faced with multinationals. We could not get quite the same deal as bigger countries. That is resolved. The fact of 700,000 Europeans dying every year from tobacco is a major issue and I look forward, I hope, to the Deputy's support when we bring in the plain packaging Bill later this year.

I share the Deputy's concerns about obesity. We are working on this across Government for the first time. We have agreement across Government that we must tackle this issue. There is a need to stop paying lip-service to public health and pay for it. As politicians we must all take responsibility for this. It is much sexier to open a new MRI scanner or hospital wing than it is to promote a public health initiative which can save many more lives and much more money in the future.

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