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

I thank all the Senators who submitted amendments to this Bill and I also thank all those who have contributed to the Bill's progression through this House. I am particularly pleased there were no dissenting voices regarding the Bill. This demonstrates in practice what has been concluded in an EU study, that is, the Irish public have a strong willingness to adopt public health measures which will reduce the numbers of people who smoke in this country.
There is a wealth of evidence indicating that standardised packaging will have a positive impact. However, no matter what evidence we produce, the tobacco industry will produce evidence to contradict this. A recent article in The Lancetre-iterated this when it stated the following: "Tobacco industry misrepresentation of the evidence in order to try to block public health interventions by manipulating policy making and public opinion is well documented."The article went on to say that "it is essential to guard against continued misrepresentation of the evidence". One only has to look at the programme I alluded to, "Burning Desire: The Seduction of Smoking", in which they show a Senate hearing where one representative after another across a straight line of gentlemen got up to say that they did not believe tobacco was addictive. I am confident that the Irish public, including our Deputies and Senators, have not and will not allow themselves to be manipulated. Arguments put out there by the tobacco industry regarding increased illicit trade and supposed job losses from the retail sector do not deflect us from introducing public health measures which will ultimately save lives. This legislation will save lives long after we have passed on from this House and passed on from this life.
As I have stated before, standardised packaging is the latest strand to the comprehensive range of tobacco control legislation already in place in Ireland. It is just one of the many recommendations for implementation set out in Tobacco Free Ireland. What we mean by Tobacco Free Ireland is a prevalence of less than 5% of people smoking by 2025 in the country. Ireland is adopting an approach recommended by the World Health Organization. Guidelines devised in 2008 under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control state the following:

Parties should consider adopting measures to restrict or prohibit the use of logos, colours, brand images or promotional information on packaging other than brand names and product names displayed in a standard colour and font style (plain packaging). This may increase the noticeability and effectiveness of health warnings and messages, prevent the package from detracting attention from them and address industry package design techniques that may suggest that some products are less harmful than others.

Standardised packaging is not a new concept and as we know Australia acted upon this recommendation. A year on from the introduction of plain packaging in Australia, we have some research on the effects of the policy. One study found that following the introduction of plain packaging and larger pictorial warnings on packs, smoking in outdoor areas declined by 23%. It also found that personal pack display, that is, where packs are clearly visible on tables, declined by 15%, particularly in venues where children were present. Flashing out a nice packet in front of one's friends that one is going to have a cigarette may seem like a cool thing to do, but flashing a very disturbing picture of a gangrenous foot, a rotting lung or a dying man will not be cool. They also found a 78% increase in the number of calls to the smoking cessation helpline. This increase was due to the introduction of plain packaging. The researchers found it was not attributable to other causes, such as anti-tobacco advertising or cigarette price increases.
As I said earlier, the misrepresentation of evidence by the tobacco industry is a well-recognised tactic. Another is the threat of legal challenges. While a legal challenge by the tobacco industry cannot be ruled out - I say that tongue in cheek because one can be absolutely sure it will happen - I am confident that the research available to us demonstrates that standardised packaging will have a positive impact on health and is a proportionate and justified measure. The threat of legal challenges should not be an obstacle to progressing public health policies. We must press on with our mission to make Ireland tobacco free by 2025. We owe that to our children. We can never allow multinationals focused on profit to interfere in any way with our public health policy, which is designed for the benefit of our people.
Again, I thank all the Senators who participated in these debates. I also thank the Senators who are members of the Joint Committee on Health and Children for their work on this Bill. Before I commend the Bill to the House, I remind Members that the battle is only really beginning. The real fight will start now. Today, I was advised by a senior Cabinet colleague that our actions in this regard, and mine as Minister for Health, have not gone unnoticed in certain states of the USA. I, together with Senator Crown, would love to see a situation where in both Europe and the United States a way was found to subsidise farmers to produce a crop other than tobacco.