John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will probably be ruled out of order and asked to sit down because I will stray from the issue. The issue before us today relates to laundering and smuggling. A much more important issue relating to smuggling was apparently discussed at a meeting of three of our senior Ministers, including the Taoiseach, on 7 May with three representatives of the tobacco industry. The story came out in today's newspapers. The Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, met representatives of Japan Tobacco International, John Player and PJ Carroll. Clear guidelines prevent lobbying by the tobacco industry of Government representatives - the 2004 United Nations directive. I raised this in the Joint Committee on Health and Children this morning and raise it again here. Was the Minister of State aware of it? Was there a collective Government decision that this was acceptable? Has this been reported back? Do we know the agenda of the meeting and who organised it?

A certain amount of circumstantial evidence would suggest there is a potential interweave between current and former members of Government and of the Minister of State's party with people who have been involved in advocacy and lobbying on behalf of the tobacco industry. Were any of these channels explored in setting up this meeting?

We should have no business meeting representatives of the tobacco industry under any circumstances. There is no agenda item we should ever discuss with these people. The only thing we should tell them is that we intend ending their industry and making it extinct by making it illegal to do commerce in tobacco at some stage in the future. We should advise them to considering divesting, learning new skills, retooling their factories, and telling the farmers to grow something else in a world that is desperately short of food and does not need tobacco. Furthermore, sitting down and doing the arithmetic would show that our State would be richer. If tomorrow morning tobacco disappeared, the Exchequer would be richer and our country would be a richer place.

We need an explanation from the Department of Finance because apparently the primary purpose of the meeting was to discuss smuggling, although it is being reported that it strayed into inappropriate lobbying by the industry against very worthwhile initiatives being taken by the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, in another branch of Government to try to row back the access to and sales of tobacco, particularly to younger people, by introducing plain packaging, and banning menthol and roll-your-own tobacco. It has been reported today that there was lobbying against these initiatives and that the meeting strayed far beyond the discussion on smuggling. I am beside myself with rage about this.