Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. He is one of the most regular Ministers attending here. We have all shared his dedication to the cause of preventing the damage tobacco does to society. He wishes to make Ireland tobacco free by 2025 and launched his strategy document on that in October.

The Bill before us incorporates a United Nations convention on tobacco control into Irish law. I worry about lobbying but I worry about tobacco even more. In the opinion of the Surgeon General in the US in 1964, "cigarette smoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance in the United States to warrant appropriate remedial action". The Surgeon General's report of 1964 was endorsed in a 1992 court case because the tobacco industry had not lived up to what was expected after a Supreme Court judgement in 1964 and still sold the products in the intervening 28 years and did not disclose the evil that was in those products about which the Minister has told us in case anyone was naive enough to think they were smoking a plant that grew in their garden. It was toxic, addictive and seriously damaging to people's health and that is why people in the US succeeded in court actions against tobacco companies for the damage they had done.

What is public opinion on this issue? The Minister enquired for us in chapter 6 of Tobacco Free Ireland, which was issued by the Department of Health in October 2013. A total of 82% of people supported banning flavours that make tobacco products more attractive, 90% support the introduction of pictorial health warnings on tobacco products and 73% are in favour of introducing a fee on manufacturers to cover the health costs of tobacco. If we are concerned about what our constituents might think about this activity, the Minister has answered those questions in the document. A public health foundation study, entitled Public health foundations and the tobacco industry: lessons from Minnesota, stated that:

It is not possible to avoid attacks by the tobacco industry or its political allies. Like programmes administered by government agencies, tobacco control foundations must be prepared for these attacks, including a proactive plan to educate the public about the principles of community based tobacco control. Public health advocates also need to be willing to take prompt action to defend these programmes and hold public officials who attack tobacco control programmes accountable for their actions.

There is a record of bribery in the US legislature. One econometric study stated that Democrats who voted for less control on smoking were paid an average of $40,000. Republicans were easier - they were paid an average of $20,000. We know from the European example in the very recent past that serious lobbying took place at the European Parliament and delayed from September to October measures to control tobacco products. Even then, they were watered down. We have mass lobbying by tobacco companies as MEPs vote on anti-smoking legislation. That was on 7 October. Europe has a bad track record on tobacco, in particular lobbying by the Poles and Czechs to protect their indigenous tobacco industries. As the Minister knows, the industry has gone to Third World countries to recruit new people, as campaigns by the Minister and Senator Crown persuade people in this part of this world not to smoke anymore. Ireland aims to be tobacco free by 2025. An article in The Independent on 8 October, entitled "EU’s 'shame' as it caves in to lobbying by tobacco giants over the sale and advertising of cigarettes", read:

They also backed away from proposals to increase the size of health warnings on cigarette packs to cover 75 per cent of the box – agreeing instead to the 65 per cent figure suggested by the industry. The current requirement for health warnings is for 30 per cent minimum coverage on one side and 40 per cent on the other. The moves will be seen as a victory for the tobacco industry, which has spent more than €1m lobbying MEPs to reject the more stringent safety proposals agreed by European governments. The differences must now be resolved before May 2014, when there are new MEP elections. There will be intense lobbying in Europe ahead of the key vote.

This is a toxic and damaging product as the Minister has told us so eloquently on many occasions. The tobacco industry engages in political lobbying. The Government is concerned about all kinds of lobbying and this is welcome because it has been an unattractive feature of Irish politics. I refer to the strange circumstances of the resignation of the Maltese Commissioner who was dealing with this area and it is rumoured that the tobacco industry lobbied against him. The question of freedom of speech is an old refrain with regard to lobbying. One cannot shout, "Fire" in a crowded theatre, so speech is curtailed. We have to know what these firms are doing. There is a very strong countervailing case to be made. We should not give people access to Parliament to make their case without the opportunity to make a rebuttal.

The right of free speech is an individual right but these are corporate actors and they do not act as individuals. They have engaged in this activity for 50 years since the report of the US Surgeon General exposed the damage done by tobacco. It is not a normal product. I ask the Minister to bear those factors in mind and to support Senator Crown's Bill. This is an activity which seriously damages people. The industry engages in serious lobbying and it is in the public interest that we should make a stand against it.