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

I will be brief. We oppose this. Smoking is a major public health problem. It kills large numbers of people and as a society we should do everything we can to discourage people from smoking, encourage them to break the addiction and get young people not to take up the habit in the first place. Nonetheless, a lot of people smoke and there are many reasons they do, such as stress. Advertising does not have as much impact as it used to, but a lot of people acquired this addiction when advertising was still around. I do not think people should be punished for an addiction through what is essentially a further regressive charge that disproportionately hits lower income families. We have traditionally opposed this and we will again. I will not go to the trouble of calling a vote, but we will indicate our opposition to the motion when it goes through.

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