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

People Before Profit will always oppose this measure, which is a fairly significant increase this year, of 75 cent per packet of cigarettes. We do so because, of course, we completely support the view we need to reduce the number of smokers and the number of people who take up smoking and to encourage people to stop smoking. There is absolutely no question as to how bad it is for your health, but the fact is smokers are addicts and a huge number of people who smoke became addicted many years ago and are being punished with this and with successive increases year in, year out. They are being punished for their addiction and I do not think the right way to deal with addiction is to punish people, yet the Irish Government exceeds most other governments in this punishment.

I was quickly calculating what the increase will mean, and I think it will be an additional €5.25 per week. That is an additional €273 per year. If you smoke one packet of cigarettes per day, it will now cost you €6,100 throughout the year. That is a shocking amount of money, and of course it would be far better if people did not spend that money on smoking and doing such damage to their health. However, for people who are addicted, it is difficult. As others said, some people just like doing it and maybe they should not, but mostly it is an addiction. When you consider the difference in the cost of a packet of cigarettes in countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece, it is pretty stark. It is now €16.75 but it would be approximately €5 in Spain and Portugal. I do not know what it costs in eastern Europe, but all of the illegal stuff is coming from there. There is no doubt that it has led to a massive expansion of people importing cigarettes illegally and the growth of that illicit trade. There are question marks over how it is fuelling that illicit trade. I would also say to the Minister that there must be some question marks over the degree to which the increases have caused the welcome reduction in the number of smokers he has cited. I can only say this anecdotally. I will not say I have read the studies in detail, but it is clear to me that young people these days who are smoking less are doing so because they are aware of the health impacts, rather than the cost of it. If you want to further reduce the number of people who take up smoking, you should put more effort and focus on the public health education side. I think that is what actually works, rather than punishing those with the addiction.

I will say something else, as an observation. I would say the degree to which young people are interested in physical health and fitness - going to the gym and the increase in particular of young women participating in sport - is probably having more influence on discouraging people from smoking. They can see the obvious conflict between smoking and engaging in physical exercise and sports. It is worth mentioning, as a connected point, the struggle many of the local grassroots soccer clubs or sports clubs in my area have to just get basic facilities, particularly for young women engaging in sport and soccer. They still do not have proper changing rooms for young women taking up soccer. We do not have enough pitches. It is an awful struggle to get facilities for boxing clubs and so on. I think you would probably do more to discourage people from smoking by investing more in grassroots sport, and other positive and healthy youth activities, than punishing the reducing number of people who are addicted to cigarettes.

I will oppose this measure and I ask the Government to at least consider those arguments because that is a whack of a hit for people who are fairly helpless in their addiction.

See this speech in context