Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I would like to address Senator Reilly as "Dr. Reilly" because he is talking about health today. I commend him on the introduction of this motion. I am one of the people about whom he spoke. I started to smoke at the age of 12. I walked to school so that I would have 3p to buy two cigarettes at the shop beside the school. By the time I was 15, I was smoking 20 cigarettes a day because I was working. By the time I was 50, I was lying in a coronary unit in St. Vincent's Hospital because my coronary artery disease had finally caught up with me. One is never clear of the disgusting habit of smoking. To this day, when I am overseas and I walk into a shop and see a nice shiny packet of cigarettes, I frequently think "maybe I should do it just this once". There is something about cigarettes. I never liked them, even when I smoked them. I smoked 100 a day at one point.

When Senator Reilly spoke earlier about his father and his brother, he brought home to me memories of some of my relations.I do not believe there is a Member who does not have a relative who has died as a result of smoking. A great sadness for me, having left education to come into the Seanad, was the number of young people, particularly young girls, who used to stand outside my college smoking during every break. There is something terribly wrong about that.

The Minister of State hit the nail on the head when she spoke earlier. The companies that sell this product know they are selling a product that kills. They know they are selling a product that does untold damage to the physical system that keeps us running, yet they continue to do it. There have been class actions against them and so on and still they do it.

When I am on holiday I often think I will smoke a cigarette but the one thing that stops me are the images on the packages. When I go into a shop and see the packages I think, "Maybe just this time", but then I look up and see a disgusting image of a rotting lung or whatever and I say, "No, that is not for me; I am walking away". The important point is that not a day goes by without me thinking that I would like a cigarette. I last smoked in 2000. The Minister of State spoke about the addictive nature of it and the difficulty in giving up cigarettes. I have had to kick the habit three times in my life and I never again want to suffer what it takes to do that.

I want to add another aspect to the discussion that I would like the Minister of State to consider, that is, this new addiction of vaping, which I find equally repulsive. That we have not banned vaping is a matter of grave concern for me. One goes into places now and people are not smoking but they are blowing something in one's face. That is wrong.

One of the abiding memories I have of my time in St. Vincent's hospital when I was diagnosed with coronary artery disease was a man lying in the bed beside me who had lost both legs. He was in his 80s, and every morning he would not lie still until the staff came in, put him in a wheelchair and brought him out to the front of the hospital so he could have a smoke. That is the habit. This man knew that smoking was doing terminal damage to him yet he had to have a smoke first thing every morning. I remember my poor father, God be good to him. The thumb, index finger and middle finger of both his hands were totally black as a result of smoking.

I will support anything the Minister of State can do to prevent people smoking, highlight it as the disgusting habit it is and shut down the cabinets in every shop that sells them. I agree with Senator Reilly that the likes of Tesco, Dunnes and the various other chain supermarkets should not be selling a product that kills. I commend Senator Reilly, a former Minister for Health, and those who came before him on introducing the smoking ban in this country. We still have a long way to go. Unfortunately, cigarettes are being sold to young people today as the new way to keep slim. Somebody needs to tell them that they may be slim on the outside, and I do not believe that works, but they should think about the damage they are doing on the inside.

I have family members in my age group who dropped dead because of coronary artery disease. For some peculiar reason, we do not show symptoms. The top of my left descending artery was 98% blocked and I was able to pass every stress test and blood test. It was found because a doctor said he was not happy and he needed to have a look inside where they found the blockage. I would have joined a long list of Craughwells who passed on to the next life as a result of smoking because we all smoked from a young age. I am 100% behind anything the Minister of State can do to support the motion.