Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The majority of cancers are caused by smoking, alcohol consumption, unhealthy food consumption or obesity.

As legislators, we should be attempting to influence people to make better choices while not restricting choices. Ireland unquestionably has the highest incidence of cancer per head in the world. We must examine this issue with some urgency. I agree with Senator Crown on sun beds. It seems like a no-brainer and I would be interested in the Minister of State's reply.

There are some indisputable facts as regards smoking. For example, it causes 85% of all lung cancers and one third of all other cancers. Tackling this matter must be our main focus. I am something of a hard-liner and would go as far as banning cigarettes from the country, although this could cause other problems. Plain packaging has been introduced effectively in Australia. It is argued that plain packaging would not work in Ireland or would help counterfeiting. If it was implemented correctly, it could actually reduce counterfeiting through the use of proper taxation marks, thereby showing whether cigarettes are legitimate. This should be possible without any difficulty. According to the majority of independent studies, plain packaging has been successful in Australia, has not led to a demonstrable increase in counterfeiting and has made smoking less appealing to young people. Similarly, banning smoking on educational campuses would be a good idea.

The second matter on which we should focus is that of alcohol consumption. I have done a great deal of work on this issue and people are blue in the face listening to me discussing it. It is serious for a variety of reasons, not least the issue under discussion today. The implementation of minimum floor pricing for alcohol seems relatively straightforward, although we will be presented with all sorts of difficulties by lobbyists. We should fight the issue.

A third focus should be that of diet, although this issue can be belittled. Senator Crown mentioned something along the lines of calories being listed on menus, etc. Other issues are seen as being more important in this context. However, the incidence of cancer is much increased among people with unhealthy diets. Education is key, as Senator Cullinane mentioned. Recently, a mother told me that she put Actimel in her child's lunch box, but Actimel contains five or seven spoons of sugar, which is ridiculous.