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

To those who argue that standardised packaging will not reduce smoking prevalence I say that this measure, together with all of the other measures in the past and future, will have the impact of reducing the incidence of smoking. It will also de-normalise how society views tobacco and smoking.

We are not alone in pursuing standardised packaging. As people have said, Australia has introduced standardised packaging; the UK will consult in the near future on the introduction of legislation in this area; and New Zealand has started the legislative process for standardised packaging. The initiative is steadily being embraced globally.

There is a wealth of evidence to support the introduction of standardised packaging. In preparing the legislation, my Department commissioned an international expert in the field, Professor David Hammond, to carry out an evidence review on standardised packaging of tobacco products. The review unequivocally found that tobacco packaging is a critically important form of tobacco promotion, particularly in countries such as Ireland which have comprehensive advertising and marketing restrictions. The review outlined the strong evidence base in existence for the initiative.

A legal challenge by the tobacco industry cannot be ruled out, and I say that with tongue in cheek because it is inevitable as far I am concerned. However, I am confident that the research available to us demonstrates that standardised packaging will have a positive impact on health and, importantly, is a proportionate and justified measure. The threat of legal challenges should not be an obstacle to our making progress on public health policies. We must press on with our mission to make Ireland tobacco-free. Ireland is a small country, like Uruguay, so the tobacco industry thinks it can bully us and influence public health policy. It will not do that, especially when it comes to the life of our children. Many other countries are watching us and holding back to see how Ireland gets on. The tobacco industry operates by intimidating one country, thus intimidating other countries by proxy. That ploy will not succeed, as the Members of this House have shown their unanimous support, and I am sure we will have tremendous support in the other House as well. Also, to comply with our European and international obligations, the Bill has been notified to the EU and the World Trade Organization.

In response to one of the few issues that were raised, smuggling will be unaffected, according to the Revenue Commissioners. A classic ploy by the tobacco industry is to pivot away from the real issue. It kills one out of every two customers it creates by getting them addicted to its products, and talks about something else like smuggling in order to sanitise the situation.

The time period for implementation is three years, and there are reasons for that which we can go into at a later date. People have talked about job losses here and we have talked about it in the European Parliament. It should never be a case of job losses versus loss of life, because it is totally in a different league.

Senator Crown made a lot of points about the industry and said we were in a war. It does resemble a war, because people die in wars and people are dying in this war. Our citizens are dying and our European friends are dying as well. Therefore, we must protect children and remind adult citizens that what they are doing harms their health.