Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I applaud and support the Minister in his efforts in this regard. In my view, the tobacco industry is evil. People say it is a bad industry but I believe it is an evil industry second only, in my opinion, to the abortion industry in that abortion directly targets the life of the baby while in this instance the lives of people are being directly targeted. Some 50% of people who smoke will die from a tobacco related illness. This is an industry which for many decades has been well aware of the risks and dangers of tobacco. As has been said, it has continued to exploit people, particularly poor people, across the world who through marketing and advertising became addicted to this product. As a consequence, many of them have lost their lives. The Minister should not allow himself to deviate from his intention as a result of propaganda arising from the tobacco industry. It will happen.

Smuggling was mentioned.

Yesterday I was in Belfast to attend a hearing of the sovereign committee of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly and heard that there has been an increase in smuggling in Australia since the introduction of these packets. I do not know whether that is true; it may well be propaganda. However, the Minister should look at the packaging to see what can be done to counterfeit-proof it, in so far as he can, and the industry should be made pay for the initiative. We provide that extra security for currency and other things. There must be some way for us to add something to the package that will make it very difficult for anybody involved in illicit activities to tamper with them.

Finally, the Minister might consider - whether as a next step or as part of this Bill - a requirement for the tobacco industry to enclose within cigarette packages some sort of information leaflet which would detail every single chemical ingredient in the cigarettes, and outline the risks and effects that each ingredient will have on the health of an individual who uses the product. We do that with medication, with the co-operation of the pharmaceutical industry. The risks and effects are clearly set out and attached to medication and we could do the same for tobacco products. The tobacco industry uses a wide variety of chemicals and we could make it a very strongly punishable offence not to name every ingredient. The tobacco industry needs to be taken on, and taken on strongly, and the Minister has the full support of this House in doing so. It is great to see that the House is unanimous on this live issue, and I wish we had had such unanimity in the past. We have it now, so we should harness it and back the Minister in what he is doing.