Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We have traditionally opposed the increase in the duty on cigarettes. I wish to stress that this is not because we do not think it is important to reduce the level of smoking, because that is extremely important, but because we remain to be convinced that price increases are the major reason there is some reduction in the smoking level. They have some impact but I do not believe they are the main reason. Frankly, better education of young people on the health aspects has had far more impact. I welcome the more graphic health warnings on the packaging, which removes the glamour that was associated with smoking in the past. The fact that there is no longer advertising of tobacco products has contributed very significantly. Again, that removes the glamour associated with smoking in the past. All of that has probably contributed more.

However, for those who are victims of the past promotion of smoking and who developed addiction, this will be an excessive financial burden that will more than wipe out the small increases in social welfare or the small reductions in tax of approximately €5 per week. The increases will be wiped out for people who are addicted to a toxic substance. They will lose out as a result. Those people need help and support in ending their addiction, but I do not believe that many lifelong smokers will give up smoking as a result of this. However, they will be impacted by the extra financial burden. We will not call a vote on this but we wish to signal, as we have in the past, that we believe this is not the way to proceed.

I wish to add a final point which is relevant not just to cigarettes but also to sugar consumption and other products where one could argue there is a health case for reduced use. We would be far better off imposing levies on the profits of the alcohol, sugar or tobacco industries and using that money to increase expenditure on health, particularly in the areas where the costs to the health service are increasing as a result of smoking, obesity or the negative health impacts of alcohol. We should go for the profits of the companies that profit from this rather than the consumers.

We wish to indicate our opposition to this measure but we will not force the House to divide on it.

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