Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I call for a debate on the introduction of plain cigarette packaging, especially now that the tobacco lobby is threatening legal action on the matter. It shows an astonishing nerve and I can only hope that the Government sticks to its guns and brings in this legislation. I listened to the discussion about this matter on the radio this morning.If the tobacco industry does not believe plain packaging works, why is it opposing is so vigorously and investing so many resources in doing so? The argument of counterfeit tobacco products has been raised fairly extensively by the lobby. If the illicit tobacco trade is so rife and growing, surely packaging associated entirely with anti-counterfeiting measures, as opposed to distracting brands, fonts and colours, will be harder to counterfeit than the current packets, given that the security features are just one single component thereof. Statistics highlight what many of us know to be true: plain packaging works.