James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have heard of burning at the cross but not burning at the crotch. It may be a new trend.

I agree with the Senator that smoking while driving is a distraction and on that basis, it should be looked at. However, we want our laws to be very robust because the tobacco industry is notorious for going after every little chink or weakness it can. The tobacco industry has lost every single court case in Australia and now it is going at it through the World Trade Organisation.

The Scottish Parliament has succeeded in bringing in a minimum price for alcohol, so we are looking very closely at that to see how it could apply to minimum pricing here and I have had conversations with Minister Poots about it. If we can do it for alcohol, we may be revisiting this legislation which we have to enact because as I said, we are law makers and not law breakers and we have to adhere to the law as it stands. However, there is nothing to stop us, as legislators, trying to get that law changed and influencing Europe.

Pricing was mentioned and there is no question but that it is very important. A sudden increase in price often has a desired effect but these incremental increases do not. I am all for a really big hike in the price of cigarettes. People will say it will lead to more smuggling. I have met ASH, the Irish Cancer Society and the Irish Heart Foundation; Professor Luke Clancy gave me an excellent paper showing that this would not lead to more smuggling. There is no evidence to show that. The places where smuggling is at its worst is in the eastern European countries where it is 37% and where the prices are very cheap. Apparently, what influences it is a very large border.

What I really want to warn about is that this is classic tobacco industry tactics. It is called pivoting away in an argument. It is a case of let us not talk about all the people who die, all the lives ruined and all the people who are on oxygen at home because they smoked but let us talk about smuggling. Smuggling has nothing to do with it. Let us keep our focus where it belongs, that is, on the lives and well-being of our people, in particular our children. I will never make any apology to anybody for protecting our children as it is our duty as parents, as adults and, in particular, as legislators. I thank the Senator for his comments, colourful and otherwise, and for his support.