Jimmy Harte (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I know he is passionate about this subject as any medical practitioner would be. What would we think about manufacturing a product and following the instructions which guarantee that it will kill people early or destroy their quality of life? The costs resulting from tobacco are phenomenal. I suppose in a couple of hundred years, the next civilisation will look back and question how it was legal to sell items that would kill people. There is no other benefit from cigarettes. It damages people's lungs and arteries and results in collateral damage to the family and increases the cost of the health service. People will question why people smoked. No matter how one looks at this issue, the evidence is against cigarettes.

I know the research in Australia shows that if people do not smoke by the age of 26 years there is a 99% chance that they will never smoke, which ties in with Senator O'Donnell's point on education. Education is so important. I do not smoke. I have never smoked but my wife smoked for a while. However, my daughter, who is seven, thinks that smoking is bad. When people reach the age of 14 or 15 years, their attitude to smoking changes. Perhaps it is a result of watching old films. Smoking was a normal part of life in the 1960s and early 1970s, as shown in "Mad Men", but there must be an input to combat this idea in primary and secondary level education rather than after leaving education. There is a great deal of emphasis on packaging. By the time the packaging comes out the people are hooked or they have had subliminal advertising from Hollywood films. I grew up at a time when it was normal to smoke and most people smoked - starting at the age of ten or 12 years. The damage is immense.

I congratulate the previous Government, and the then Minister, Deputy Micheál Martin, for introducing the smoking ban. I have said it before, we were lucky that Fianna Fáil was in power at the time of the introduction of this ban because if other parties in government introduced it, the people leading the publicans down the main streets of every town would be the Fianna Fáil Party members, because the publicans are a strong lobby. I am sure that Members were lobbied by publicans who stated that a ban on smoking would be the end of their business. In fairness, Deputy Micheál Martin did stand up to that lobby and that legislation has been a major factor in reducing the incidence of cancer. The causes of cancer and the cost of treating it are really appreciable.

I worked in insurance, and when people looking for life insurance stated they were smokers, the rate increased dramatically. There is no argument against an actuary who states that people are more likely to die earlier because they smoke. We are probably ahead of the European countries and we are definitely ahead of the Third World and Asian countries which still promote cigarettes as a source of revenue. Many Asian countries would be copying the American way. Recently I was in Taiwan and one of the problems in that country is that the cost of cigarettes is cheaper than in Europe but they are reluctant to increase the cost because of the revenue generated for the country from the sale of cigarettes. We are leading the charge on tobacco products.

The Minister referred to the advertising introduced in Australia on 1 January and they have been proactive, even though the problem there is not major. I hope the measures being introduced by this Bill will be supported by all Members. In the coming centuries people will appreciate the legislation. I hope we will have a healthier nation and I hope that cigarettes will be eradicated from society in the next century.