John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 8, between lines 13 and 14, to insert the following:“(g) not contain any item incorporated into the packaging other than as provided for by law.”.

We live in a technological age and marketing strategies are growing ever more sophisticated, including the use of electronically taggable devices. Amendment No. 6 would prevent tobacco companies from introducing any non-visible element of packaging which could allow them to communicate with their customers by any means. We are particularly concerned about the possibility of using technologies such as near field communication tags. The Minister has acknowledged that the tobacco industry uses techniques such as raffles to entice tobacco addicts to their brands. This amendment would close off other channels through which they might otherwise engage with their customers. I urge him to accept the amendment because this technology is moving quite quickly.
Amendment No. 15 would have the same effect for tobacco pouches and self-roll tobacco products. Amendment No. 19 has the same effect for other tobacco products.

Amendments Nos. 25 to 27, inclusive, are allied. I am urging the Minister to accept this attempt to include specific, detailed and scientifically spelled-out warnings with the package. Other than bluntly stating that cigarettes can cause gangrene or cancer, the warnings would go into the detail of contents and ingredients. The measure would force companies to list all the potentially toxic, and especially the potentially carcinogenic, compounds which are found both in cigarettes and other tobacco products. They would also have to mention if they were mutogenic, which means that standardised biochemical assays would show that genetic changes can be caused. In addition, they would have to mention that they are reprotoxic, which means they have been shown to cause abnormalities in reproductive cells.

I believe this would be a powerful educational opportunity and I urge the Minister to put these warnings in packaging for cigarettes, tobacco pouches, as specified in the Bill, and for other tobacco products about which I will elaborate in other amendments.