Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As our spokesperson on finance outlined, we will support this revenue-raising measure. We have had this discussion on numerous occasions and we had a debate last week in which I complimented the previous Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, on the stand we are taking with tobacco, and particularly the promotion of a tobacco-free society. That is not just for this country and we must ensure Europe will get that message. There are powerful and influential lobbies in the tobacco industry, and I know representatives have contacted the Minister. I ask him to stand firm and ensure he does not give in on the principle of ensuring our citizens can be free of the scourge of nicotine and tobacco addiction.

This is a revenue-raising measure and to a certain extent we camouflage it by calling it a public health policy initiative. There is no doubt that if the price of tobacco is increased, it will encourage people to give it up. At the same time we must be conscious that when the price of tobacco is increased to a certain level, it attracts and encourages illegal trade. Having observed that trade, it is clear that in many cases the cigarettes smuggled in this country are not made illegally in a far-flung place but are manufactured by companies on the listed stock exchanges of the world. They are sold legally in one country but shipped illegally to our country. The idea that the cigarettes are made in the back rooms of a shanty town in the Far East and Asia is not the case. The majority of these cigarettes are made by companies listed on the international stock exchanges.

This is seen as a public health measure but we need to encourage people to give up cigarettes and assist them in doing so. We must consider nicotine replacements and substitutes. There is no empirical evidence on whether such products assist people in giving up cigarettes but there is anecdotal evidence that people can stay off cigarettes longer by using nicotine substitution. Within the public health policy of encouraging people to give up cigarettes - this measure is meant to have that aim, although it is equally a revenue-raising measure - there should be a system in place to lighten the cost to an individual of giving up cigarettes. It can be quite expensive to give up cigarettes when one is buying nicotine patches or e-cigarettes. We should make tobacco more expensive but the quid pro quo should be to make nicotine substitution less expensive so as to encourage people in making the switch to something that is not as damaging to health.

We support the measure but as Deputy Higgins indicated, there are socioeconomic factors involved also. More people on low incomes smoke than those on high incomes, with more people with health issues in lower socioeconomic groups. This affects more severely those people in lower income groupings. By using medical cards or other supports, the HSE should in some way be obligated to assist and encourage people in giving up cigarettes.

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