Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

This is a vast subject and to embrace it in seven minutes is impossible. I wish the Minister of State well in her work. We will see the changes when she is successful.

I was the convenor of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children some years ago and we produced a very strong report on the tobacco industry. It is still available for Senators to read. It gave the then Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, the confidence to introduce the smoking ban. I learned a lot about the tobacco industry's ability to promote its interests. A very brave decision — the right decision — was made by the Government and we should continue to monitor the industry.

While I acknowledge that the price of a packet of cigarettes was increased by 50 cent in the budget, I believe it should have been increased further. I do not accept that it is good enough to say revenue would decrease if cigarettes were taxed too much. The price should be a disincentive to smoking, if possible. However, some smokers to whom I spoke said they have stopped having lunch and dinner and instead use the money to buy cigarettes. Such is the difficulty associated with tobacco.

If I were to focus on one subject concerning smoking, I would ask the Minister of State to consider making patches and other equipment to help one stop smoking much more readily available. A nurse told me a number of years ago that she was only allowed to have one packet of such products at any given time and that this presented a difficulty if more than one person approached her with a view to quitting smoking.

We must bite the bullet; taxation on cigarettes should not be a revenue stream. We should try to assist people in quitting consuming what is an addictive drug. A lot of money must be invested to help people overcome any addiction.

Let us consider alcohol abuse, bearing in mind that I enjoy having a glass of most types of alcoholic beverage as much as anyone else. I raised the issue of the labelling of alcoholic beverages on the Adjournment on 28 November last year. Has the Minister of State an update? A number of Members of the Seanad and Dáil have recently lost weight — some of us again — and were facilitated in doing so by many food companies that write on their packaging the calorie content, saturated fat content and salt content of their products, in addition to all the other ingredients.

However, if one purchases an alcoholic beverage in a bar, nothing states what one is really drinking. One might know the percentage of alcohol, the stating of which is obligatory. I should not be mentioning specific alcoholic products but will refer to two to make a comparison. Bud Light is light in alcohol but not necessarily in calories while Bulmers Light is light in calories but not necessarily in alcohol. In this case, the word "light" has two completely different connotations. If I get a diet drink I will know what is in it, and people are not scared to say it. I have challenged the industry to come up with less calorific versions of alcohol.

The European Union regulatory framework, Directive 2000/13/EC, deals with this issue. Last year we presented our way forward on labelling competitiveness, consumer information and better regulation in the EU. The Minister of State might not have it to hand but I would be interested to get an update on that from her.

I saw people on "The Late Late Show" who had lost weight recently and the one point they all made was that they no longer drink alcohol. They no longer drink because there are many calories in alcohol. Everyone wants to lose weight. If people knew the calories in a pint of beer, would they drink ten or 20 pints a night?

Another point I must mention before I conclude is the promotion of mental health. I was late coming to the House for this debate because I had a meeting with the Minister of State, Deputy John Moloney, on the issue of music therapy. Music therapy is a clinical intervention and is linked to art and drama therapies. I have seen that therapy working throughout the country. It can benefit people who have sexual abuse issues they may not have dealt with. The Commission for Victims and Survivors in the North travelled to the South and said it was very important for people who had suffered trauma. It is also important in terms of conditions such as autism and for anybody dealing with mental health issues.

The difficulty in this area is that we do not yet have professional recognition of creative arts therapists. Every other country in the world has such recognition. We must move towards having that process finalised. It has started but prevention is always better than cure and early intervention is the next best thing. Creative arts therapy opens up people's minds in a clinical way to change their view of themselves and of others, and it can assist in many aspects of the health sector. I cannot explore the issue today but there is a very good report on the issue, Defining Music Therapy, September 2006, on the Oireachtas website under the arts committee heading. If anyone needs information or clues to why creative arts therapy is important, it is embraced in that report.