Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Catherine Byrne, and her officials to the House this evening for this very important debate. I congratulate Senator Reilly and his Fine Gael colleagues on tabling this motion, which Fianna Fáil will be supporting fully. That said, it would be important to see the detail of any proposed legislation or regulation which would allow the Minister to take measures to ban smoking in areas where food is consumed, including in outdoor areas, but the general idea behind this motion is one with which we fully agree.

An average of 16 people die each day from the effects of smoking, tobacco related cancer or other illnesses. More than 81,000 hospital bed days are taken up each year treating people with preventable cancer arising specifically from smoking. The estimated cost to the healthcare system of smoking is more than €500 million per annum, yet there are still organisations under the remit of Government Departments that facilitate tobacco company investments. I know Senator Reilly agrees that this beggars belief and flies in the face of the aim of achieving a tobacco-free Ireland by 2025, but it is still happening today. Last October, my party colleague Senator Swanick, who sends his apologies that he could not be here this evening, spoke of his attempts to bring an end to investment in tobacco companies by the Courts Service. The response he received effectively said that the service would not invest in the tobacco industry if the Oireachtas made it illegal to do so. Basically, there is no law prohibiting the service from investing in the tobacco industry and therefore, it is fine for it to do so. Senator Swanick has a Bill before the House which aims to prohibit such investment and I hope that when the time comes he will be supported in his endeavours. I just wanted to flag that because tobacco control is an issue which everybody in this House and this country takes very seriously.

I am very pleased that Ireland has a very strong tradition in this area. As Senator Buttimer pointed out, my party leader and the former Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Micheál Martin, introduced a ban on smoking in public areas and many workplaces. Many countries throughout the world have followed Ireland's course and introduced similar measures. As the saying goes, imitation is the best form of flattery and that is something of which we can be very proud as a people.

The way to tackle sustained tobacco use is through education, an integrated approach by various Departments and from the bottom up. When I was going to school in the 1980s, a major emphasis was placed on education around tobacco and the difficulties it caused for peoples' health. Significant resources were put into it. At that time more than half of my classmates smoked but after a very short period, only two out of 35 continued to smoke. That reduction was a direct result of the education programme that was put in place at the time.I firmly believe that if we place a real emphasis on educational material, we can transmit a message to young people that will help them to understand the harmful effects that can be caused by tobacco and cigarettes. Unfortunately, significant numbers of young people are beginning to smoke again. There is a need for an educational programme that focuses on the composition of cigarettes, indicates that cigarettes contain poison and shows young people the relevant images. I commend Senator Reilly and his colleagues, as I have done on other occasions, on the work they did on plain cigarette packaging. They faced down the might of the tobacco industry when it threatened to take us on as a nation. I repeat that if we can avail of every possible occasion to tell young people in schools and on social media about the dangers and effects of smoking, the horrific damage it does to people and the deaths it causes, we can make huge inroads.

I agree with what Senator Buttimer said about availability, visibility and advertising. We should be tackling such areas as well. I appreciate that this proposal might not be popular with some businesses and some people who like to smoke outside restaurants. I remind the House that we experienced huge difficulty in getting the initial legislation through over a decade ago, but it was seen through because it was backed politically. It has worked and it has saved lives. The idea of going into a pub that is filled with cigarette smoke is unthinkable now. It was lunacy that we did so in the past. When we travel nowadays to countries that continue to allow smoking in their bars and restaurants, we cannot get out of such places quickly enough because we realise the damage that is done by inhaling smoke in such environments. I will never know how we lived with it for so long. I congratulate Senator Reilly. We will support his motion fully. I hope the necessary legislation or regulations will be introduced soon so that we can look at exactly what they mean for businesses and set out the appropriate actions they need to take. I repeat that we will support this proposal fully.