Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

I am not under any illusions about the difficulty of those who have developed an addiction. It is difficult to get off them and a number of factors are in play to finally enable a person to quit. We keep our fingers crossed that one is off them for good. It is important that the tone of any campaign is not a lecturing or judgmental tone. One must set out the facts of the impact of cigarettes on our health and letting people know about the data and the extent of the risk they are taking. The law has a clear role to play in making it difficult for young people, in particular, to access cigarettes. Advertising plays an important role in the education and awareness programme. We must also ensure there is support for people in terms of being able to avail of smoking cessation programmes supported by the State. It is a multifaceted matter and members referred to the other point that must be addressed. This Bill does not pretend to be all encompassing, it is a specific item of legislation to deal with the specific issue. It was hoped that we could introduce the graphic to a limited as under the 2009 legislation but some concern was expressed at the legal situation was not entirely watertight. We are introducing this legislation in order to close a loophole. We are keen to move on that by introducing the regulation and making arrangements to required the images to be incorporated into the packets. We want to make progress as quickly as possible and I welcome the support of all members in passing this legislation speedily before the summer recess.

A number of Members raised the question of price. The point was strongly made by Senator Crown in this regard. It is important to point out that cigarette pricing controls in Ireland are definitely part of a long-running an ambitious effort to decrease smoking prevalence. Evidence shows that pricing is the key tool in assisting and supporting efforts to encourage people to stop. A study undertaken by the EU anti-smoking campaign, entitled help for a life without tobacco, showed that a 10% increase in price in high-income countries result in a 4% reduction in smokers. The efforts to keep prices high have been successful. Cigarette prices in Ireland are the highest in the world. Ireland is price, €8 .65, is over one year of 50 more expensive than the next most expensive country, the UK. Our tax take per packet, €6.71, is higher than the retail price of cigarettes in all but one EU member state. There has been strong campaign and it would continue. We have been successful in spite of much opposition in maintaining cigarette prices at this high level. Notwithstanding that, the Minister has signalled his intention to seek further increases in the price of tobacco products in the forthcoming budget. I hope her cross-party support in this action. In addition to a general increase on tobacco products, the Minister has raised the possibility of introducing an environmental charge of the tobacco industry in light of the litter problem resulting from tobacco use. Hopefully that will also assist.

It is also important to talk about what is happening in respect of illicit trade. There is a major problem in this area. At my advice clinic last Saturday, I dealt with a constituent who had a social worker query. I did not believe he folded his shopping bag and put it under his arm and told me that he was going into town to buy cheap cigarettes. This is a common practice across the country in markets are on Henry St. It is a serious problem and efforts are being made to clamp down on this. The war needs to be strengthened and maintained a high level. The quantity of cigarettes in which Judy was paid well from 4.6 billion cigarettes in 2009 to 4.1 billion cigarettes in 2010 even though there was no reduction in the prevalence of smoking. The total excess duty on tobacco products was €1.1 billion in 2010 to €1.2 billion in 2009. It must acknowledge that tobacco taxes in Ireland are the high highest in the EU. The revenue commissioners have a responsibility in this area and it is important that we keep pressure on them to tackle this problem.

According to a report published earlier this year by Japan Tobacco International, an estimated 22 to 24% of all tobacco consumed in Ireland is aided Irish tax and excise duty. This amounts to a decrease from 27% in 2009. This is the first decline since recording began in 2005. The actions are having some measure of success there is no doubt we need to continue putting pressure on that regard. I am also concerned that the extent to which, outside of illegal activity of cigarettes being smuggled in a commercial sense and sold on street in markets, there is common practice of people travelling to other European countries, particularly Eastern European countries, and coming back with bags of cigarettes are a distribution in various states. That is prevalent and must be addressed.

I wish to respond to the point made by Senator MacSharry in respect of the office of tobacco control. The public health tobacco memo amendments act of 2010 provided for the merger of the office of tobacco control in HSE with effect from one January 2011. The functions of the office transferred to the HSE and those functions include the maintenance of the tobacco retail register, advice to the Minister on control and regulation of tobacco products, consultation with national and international bodies in the field of smoking prevention, making recommendations to the Minister on measures to reduce or eliminate smoking, supporting research to identify measures to reduce the incidence of smoking and preparing and publishing research. That work continues and there is no let-up. A separate national office for tobacco control has been set up in the HSE.

Senator Burke referred to putting the details of they quit lying on the packet. That is included on one of the images. Perhaps it should be more widely available and I take the point in that regard. We will examine the matter.

A number of other points were made in regard to the SPHE programme, including by Senator Moran. I have no doubt that the messages young people receive can be greatly strengthened through that programme and I undertake to look at it in order to see what can be done in that regard.

On health promotion in general, including the issue of smoking, much more could be done within the schools where, clearly, there is a captive audience. I am conscious that teachers will say they have been loaded with many additional responsibilities. However, I would like to move towards the idea of the health promoting school and much could be done in regard to diet, exercise and healthy lifestyle habits in general. Smoking and use of alcohol and illicit drugs would also come under that heading. Perhaps in the same way we have the five green flags promoting environmental consciousness and responsibility we should have a sixth flag concerned with establishing the status of the health promoting school. I would like to do more work in that area.

Senator Crown made a very important point about making people aware of the need for smokers to quit smoking at the earliest possible stage. Many of us have fooled ourselves into thinking we could get away with it for a certain length of time but very often it is not until people are in middle age that they start to realise they want to live into their 70s, 80s and 90s and concentrate their minds on the matter at that point. Many people think they can get through until they are in their 40s. That is a very important message we must get across, one that is probably not made often enough to people. We must look at ways of incorporating it into the general messages we need to put out in respect of smoking.

It is a matter of serious concern that, in spite of the fact that we were world leaders with the smoking ban and are also leading it in respect of legislation, we are still not reducing our smoking rates which have been stuck at 29% for a long time. We must be more proactive in terms of discouraging people from getting started in the first place and must provide very clear messages about the damage that is done and support people to quit smoking. The images this legislation provides for certainly are very stark - they have been circulated to Members in colour. If one flicks through them they make one wince, which is the point. We want to move as soon as possible to bring about a situation where it will be mandatory for tobacco companies to display these images. We hope they will do the job intended and there is every possibility they will.

I thank everybody for their support and for facilitating the session today. We shall return next week with the remaining Stages and I look forward to dealing with the legislation, getting it out of the way and up and running as soon as possible.