Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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418. To ask the Minister for Health his views on concerns that retailers will suffer from a reduction in turnover because of business lost due to the introduction of plain packaging of tobacco products; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47769/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, Tobacco Free Ireland, Ireland’s policy on smoking, sets a target for Ireland to be tobacco free by 2025. In practice, this will mean a smoking prevalence rate of less than 5%. The two key themes underpinning the report are protecting children and the denormalisation of smoking. The introduction of standardised packaging of tobacco is just one of over sixty recommendations made in the policy.

In December 2012, Australia became the first country in the world to introduce standardised or plain packaging of tobacco products. Research has shown that a year after standardised packaging was introduced in Australia, there was no evidence of any decrease in customers purchasing tobacco products from small retail outlets, no flooding of the market by cheap brands and no increase in the use of illicit tobacco as predicted by opponents to standardised packaging.

I am confident that the introduction of standardised packaging in Ireland will assist in reducing the numbers of people smoking in this country, and in particular act as a deterrent for young people from starting to smoke.

Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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419. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 107 to 110, inclusive, of 9 October 2014, the consultations held in respect of the issues raised in the detailed opinions submitted by EU member states; the input from other Departments into the preparation of his Department's response to the European Commission; if he shares any of the concerns raised by EU member states; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48023/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, Government approval was received on 19^thNovember 2013 to proceed with drafting the Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill 2013. The legislation has now been passed by the Seanad and Second Stage of the Bill concluded in the Dáil on 2nd October 2014.

The Bill was formally notified to the Commission and to Member States under the EU Technical Standards Directive (98/34/EC) and the Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU) on 17^thJune 2014. As the Deputy has noted, detailed opinions on the proposed measures have been received from a number of Member States. As the detailed opinions in question cannot be released for publication, I do not propose to discuss their contents at this time. The detailed opinion documents are currently being considered by officials in my Department and a response is being drafted in consultation with other relevant Government Departments.

The Commission and Member States had until 18^thSeptember to comment or provide detailed opinions on the proposed measures. For this reason, the standstill period has increased by three months, i.e. until 18^thDecember 2014. The legislative process cannot continue until after this standstill period.