Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and the Members here today for their kind comments regarding my new role as Minister of State. I look forward to working with all Deputies. As Deputy Shortall knows, I have served a long apprenticeship in the health committee. I think I am one month short of 13 years on the health committee, so I have served a long apprenticeship. I hope it can be of benefit to me in my new role.

It is important that all of the contributions here were extremely constructive. There are a number of messages that were clearly set out for me today. It is certainly something I will give serious consideration to. It is also important to acknowledge the work of the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin. It was not easy 20 years ago to introduce the changes that were made. It really was a fundamental change in policy. The benefits of the ban, to which he made a huge contribution, helped people to live better lives and led to a reduction in the number of people who have died as a result of lung cancer and other smoking-associated diseases. It is really sad to think that the chief medical officer in the US identified in the early 1960s that smoking was a danger to people's health, and yet it took us another three or four decades before there was fundamental change in this area across the entire world.

It is important now that we move on a step. We have reduced the level of smoking. It is, on average, around 18%. We need to get it down further. I know that the current Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has some plans in this area. I look forward to working with him. I thank him for the work he has done in various areas of health policy over recent years. I look forward to working with the Ceann Comhairle and all Members on the issues we need to get change on. As I said, I have had a long apprenticeship, and I hope I have learned from it.

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