James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy, and the Minister, Deputy Harris, on signing the plain packaging legislation into law. No conversation about tobacco is complete without mentioning the 700,000 people who die unnecessarily across Europe every year because of this product - 6,000 of those people are in this country. It causes misery for tens of thousands of others who suffer with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancers and various other ailments that would be utterly avoidable if they did not smoke. Plain packaging is a major initiative and one that is very important. It does one of the most important things we can do, which is protecting children from ever taking up smoking. Children are not stupid. The Irish Cancer Society did a little survey where they showed children the current cigarette packets which they thought were nice and lovely to play with and they wanted them. They were then shown the plain packs and they recoiled in horror. Who would ever want to smoke? This measure will save tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of lives in the future. It will save the State a huge amount of money, some €10 billion annually, that we spend on health and as a result of lost productivity. This is a great day for children and for all smokers because these packs will remind them of the damage they are doing to themselves. The House will agree we are all trying to support smokers to stop smoking. We are not anti-smoker, rather we are anti-smoking.