Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

The kernel of the Minister of State's reply is the second last paragraph which reads, "the level of penalties in the legislation is strong; however, the average level of penalties being imposed is considerably lower than that provided for in law." I am unsure how we can get the message across because we are not supposed to link the legal and political systems, but if anyone is listening, I would like to think this could be done.

Will the Minister of State ask the Department to come back to me on another matter? Today we transferred the Office of Tobacco Control to the HSE. I like to believe the Departments of Justice and Law Reform, Finance and Health and Children work together in detecting not only the big operators but also those who come in with multiple suitcases full of goods which are certainly not for their own consumption. Perhaps the issue of what constitutes personal consumption should be dealt with at European level because people are obviously trading and travelling to and from continental Europe daily.