Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Films have been made about the American tobacco lobby. One of them - I cannot remember its title now - received a great deal of acclaim some years ago. It depicted the lengths to which the tobacco lobby will go to get people to use the product. That is not the point; it is fully entitled to do that. It has a product and it wants to sell it. However, when it starts dictating by sending a legal threat to the sovereign Government of this country, telling it that unless it withdraws the legislation it will be subject to litigation, that goes over the line. I hope the Government will issue a public statement condemning the arrogance of this company, in the first instance, and stating that it will hold firm. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Reilly, has been quoted today as saying that he will hold firm on this legislation. I hope there will be some response from the Government.

I am not aware of any other occasion on which a corporate entity has threatened a sovereign government over legislation it proposes to pass. The people in the tobacco industry should be made aware that one half of the democratic structure of this Parliament has already passed this Bill, having debated it openly and in a democratic fashion. It fully supported it. I suggest that the company and the other company that has sent briefing notes to Senators might get their act together and realise that the Bill is a Seanad Bill, having been introduced first in this House, debated fully and passed unanimously. I hope the same will happen in the Dáil and that two fingers, or something similar in political terms, will be given to this company and to the tobacco lobby in general. It talks about paying more than €600 million in tax, but there is no talk about the billions this State spends on the health of people who have been smoking through the years. Everybody is aware of the amount of money that could be saved by the health service in this country if fewer people were smoking.