Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

I thank Members for contributing to the debate and for their support for the passage of this Bill. We are all at one on this. Everybody realises the huge difficulties caused by smoking, that smoking poses a very significant public health threat, that smoking is the main cause of preventative premature death, and that it puts a huge strain on the health service. For that reason, we all have an obligation to ensure that we do everything we can to reduce the prevalence of smoking in our society.

A number of these points came up on Second Stage. In fairness, much work has been done in recent years. The 2009 Bill was very welcome and very wide ranging. I salute my predecessors who were very active in this area. We now have a ban on the display of smoking, a prohibition on vending machines in most locations, a ban on the sale of cigarettes to minors and the strict enforcement of that by environmental health officers. As Senator Quinn pointed out, we have the highest price for cigarettes in Europe. There is a commitment to look at this again in the upcoming budget. The Minister for Health has already signalled his preparedness to examine the possibility of increasing the price further. There are severe restrictions on advertising. Health promotion is very well resourced. More needs to be done in all these areas, but much work is under way in smoking cessation programmes and support and advice for people who are keen to give up. Members have referred to the courageous Bill that banned smoking in the work place, which has been very successful.

When it comes to tackling the threat posed by smoking, Ireland is very much to the fore. The ban on smoking in the work place was ground breaking and we led the rest of Europe in this area. As we are to the fore in tackling the problem, the tobacco industry has targeted Ireland and has taken several legal cases that are currently under way. The industry sees us as posing a threat to its business.

It is important to recognise the valuable work done to date, but we need to go further. In spite of all the measures taken, the prevalence rate has remained high, at around 29% for several years. We like to think that societal attitudes have changed, that our generation now sees the folly in smoking - many of us here, including me, are ex-smokers - and hope that our children will not repeat our mistakes, but the reality is that young people are still smoking in very large numbers, especially young girls. There is no room for complacency in this area.

I know concerns were raised that we are not going far enough with this Bill. This is a technical amendment to earlier legislation. It is necessary to ensure that the Minister has sufficient statutory powers to introduce combined text and pictorial warnings on tobacco products by way of regulations. Section 6 of the Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Act 2009 empowered the Minister to make these regulations to introduce such combined text and pictorial warnings on tobacco products. However, while work was under way to finalise the arrangements for this, the Office of the Attorney General advised last January that there was a lacuna in section 6 of the 2009 Act. As a consequence, there is a concern that section 6 does not adequately empower the Minister to make the necessary regulations. The Office of the Attorney General further advised that an amendment to section 6 would be required to ensure that the Minister's vires to make regulations is unimpeachable. As we have been to the fore in this we must be absolutely certain of our legal grounds. If there is room for any doubt, a case will be taken. That is why the Attorney General has told us there is a need to amend the 2009 Act, and she is not convinced sufficient powers exist. That is why we are discussing this legislation.

The enabling section, as it stands, is limited because it only refers to article 5, which deals with the labelling requirements of the 2001/37/EC directive. Specifically, it concerns the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products. There is also the 2003 Commission decision on the use of colour photographs or other illustrations for each of the additional warnings listed in annex 1 of the directive.

The subsequent decision in 2005, which provided the library of picture warnings and a technical specification, and the amending decision in 2006 to allow manufacturers to modify warnings for awkward package sizes and shapes, were omitted from the 2009 Act. In a determination to get this absolutely right in order that it cannot be challenged, the Attorney General has advised on this amending legislation. It is very specific enabling legislation and following from the passage of this Bill into law, the Minister will be able to make the necessary regulations, which we want to do as quickly as possible.

This is not intended as any kind of panacea but it is specific amending legislation. In that regard I will respond to Senator Crown's points about going further and banning smoking in cars. There is no doubt that smoking in cars exposes occupants to very harmful environmental tobacco smoke, ETS. This is a carcinogen and contains the same cancer-causing substances and toxic agents as are inhaled by a smoker, so there is no safe level of exposure to ETS. Exposure to cigarette smoke is particularly dangerous in enclosed spaces such as cars. Parents and others with responsibility for the welfare of children have a particular responsibility to ensure such exposure does not take place.

I concur very much with the points made by Senator Crown and others regarding the need to move on this front. The Minister, Deputy Reilly, has signalled that he would be in favour of legislating to prohibit smoking in cars but would like to see a public information and education campaign to highlight the dangers associated with exposure to ETS in cars and to raise public awareness in advance of the introduction of this legislation. That is the same kind of approach taken in respect of the legislation that Deputy Martin introduced as Minister relating to smoking in the work place. We should create that kind of public awareness and carry out the advertising campaigns before formulating the legislation.

The Bill before the House for approval today is necessarily specific to the matter in hand of the introduction of combined photo and text warnings on tobacco products, and its passage into law will provide the Minister with the required vires to regulate and make combined warnings obligatory on all tobacco products as soon as possible. The Bill is an enabling Bill and does not provide a suitable basis for the inclusion of the broader tobacco control measures which Members wish to see. The Minister and I wish to see these also. I assure the House that those matters will be addressed.

A few other points were made during the debate. We spoke about illicit trade on Second Stage, and the industry has suggested this represents approximately 24% of the cigarettes currently in Ireland. I take the point made by Senator Quinn regarding price. A delicate balance must be struck. There is a significant problem and the authorities have suggested that approximately 20% of cigarettes smoked in the country are illegal. It is the responsibility of the Revenue Commissioners to enforce the law in this regard and a wide number of actions are being taken by the Revenue Commissioners and Customs and Excise in that regard.

For example, between 2008 and 2010, Customs and Excise service seized a total of 532 million cigarettes with an estimated retail value of €222 million, representing just over 30,000 individual seizures. Much work has been ongoing at the ports and airports but many cigarettes are still coming in illegally, so the work must be stepped up. In addition, large quantities of cigarettes are imported legally as the current allowance is very generous.