Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Howlin rightly said, this is a long-standing policy of successive Governments whereby taxation plays a role in reducing the number of people smoking and, thankfully, we have seen the evidence of that. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, is continuing to pursue that work through the Healthy Ireland agenda.

I reassure Deputies that this is not the entire response of the Government in respect of reducing the number of people smoking. We have a range of supports through the health service. These include the HSE QUIT campaign, a multimedia QUIT campaign service, a specialist counselling staff and, as Deputy Sherlock alluded to, we have nicotine-replacement therapies covered by the GMS. I will take up the point that he raises. I also agree in regard to the issue of smuggling. I am pleased to inform the House that Revenue continues to attach a very high priority to this and seized approximately 32.4 million cigarettes with a value of €19.5 million in 2017. This House has taken a number of measures in recent years in the Finance Act 2012 and the Finance Act 2013 to try to continue to beef up and improve the powers of Revenue in that area. This is a sensible measure and I commend it to the House.

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