Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and welcome his commitment to this issue, in particular his aim to make Ireland tobacco free by 2025. A few weeks ago, the Minister said that we have a duty to our children and that the tobacco industry was terrified by the move to plain packaging because it knows that it will make an impact. I support the Bill that Senators Crown and Barrett have put forward because it involves a principle. Over the past few days in this House we discussed a Bill that had been through the Dáil but to which the Government tabled numerous amendments. The idea that we cannot allow this Bill to go to Committee Stage is highly questionable. This is a matter of our voting on a principle. I can pick up any Bill and show where I have difficulties. This is a clear principle.

Ireland ratified, and was a party to, the World Health Organization, WHO, Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. I refer to the guidelines for implementation produced by the WHO, according to which the framework convention recognises that parties, of which Ireland is one, “need to be alert to any efforts by the tobacco industry to undermine or subvert tobacco control efforts and the need to be informed of activities of the tobacco industry that have a negative impact on tobacco control efforts”. If Members of this House or the other House, or officials, have meetings behind closed doors there is no way that people can be informed of the activities of the tobacco industry.

Under Article 5.3 of the convention, “in setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law”. That is what we are trying to do with this Bill, namely, to ensure that it is in our national law. We have ratified the framework convention and have been told to limit interactions with the tobacco industry to the extent strictly necessary to regulate the industry and tobacco products effectively. Any of these interactions need to be as public and transparent as possible.

We are all very aware of the reach and influence of the tobacco industry. Anyone who is a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children knows the type of organisations, individuals and companies from which we have received correspondence. It takes very little research to discover the funding behind them from the tobacco industry. The front of house might look quite clean and respectable but with very little probing one can see the industry’s insidious funding.

Suzanne Lynch wrote recently in The Irish Times about how fans of the cult TV series “Mad Men”, which shows the murky world of tobacco lobbying, are familiar with Don Draper and his team of advertising executives who make their way in the cut-throat world of 1960s advertising and are bolstered by the patronage of their top tobacco client. When one watches that series one realises that the hard-drinking culture and casual sexism of the 1960s have all gone but the practice of tobacco lobbying is alive and well. We have not made a dint in it. The reason behind this legislation is to send out a clear message that we will not accept tobacco lobbying.

Senator Mooney spoke about the EU regulations that were being discussed. The Minister was on the other side of the debate and defended it too. Documents obtained by The Observer show that Philip Morris International employed 161 people to combat the EU tobacco products directive and spent €1.25 million lobbying, with lunches, dinners, etc., to influence Members of the European Parliament. It was one of the darkest days of tobacco lobbying. It is insidious and we need to ensure that we have a clear framework.

This could be done through ethics legislation. I was very surprised when I became a Member of this House that I did not receive a clear outline of the fact that we have signed up to, and ratified, the WHO convention. The obligation is on us as parliamentarians to implement it. Is it clearly outlined in the books given to Ministers when they are appointed? We need to ensure that there are no meetings behind closed doors. Oireachtas Members have told me that they have received representations directly from the tobacco industry and some have had meetings with it. Is that okay? I believe that goes against the framework convention. How are they to know that, unless we put it into law and make it absolutely clear so that we all know this industry is insidious?

We are trying to work on public health issues. We do not need the heavily financed, insidious tobacco industry interfering in our work on behalf of the people of Ireland, and particularly targeting children and damaging children’s health. People start smoking here at an earlier age than anywhere else in Europe. The Minister is driving a measure through to introduce plain packaging. The tobacco industry at EU level is focusing on Ireland. It will put all its resources in here because it needs to block this move. If it succeeds here the measure will not filter through to the whole of the EU. We are the focus of huge might and power. I could find ways to change or amend this Bill. That is what Committee Stage is for. We should vote tonight on the principle and I ask Members to do that.