Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

We will be supporting this measure. The Irish Heart Foundation and the Irish Cancer Society have consistently called for comprehensive, accessible supports to help people to quit smoking. In their view, what is required is a community-based approach. We support the direction of money towards that aim and to Customs and Excise to help it tackle the smuggling of vast amounts of cigarettes and other more harmful substances into this country.

I accept it is difficult for people to quit smoking. Most people in this House, including myself, will have smoked at some point. It is a pretty difficult habit to give up and we should acknowledge that. However, the response cannot be just a revenue raising exercise. It must include the public health component everyone else has talked about. My father died from lung cancer. To see somebody for months on end struggling to catch a breath should be enough to convince people that they should not begin smoking in the first instance. The evidence is that a constantly expected increase in the price of cigarettes is a deterrent. The ambition for Ireland to be a country that does not have people who are dependent on cigarettes should be, and is, a legitimate ambition. We should do whatever we can to get to that point.

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