The Government is prepared to fight the powerful tobacco industry head-on in the courts because it is determined to protect children from the scourge of cigarette smoking, Health Minister James Reilly said yesterday.
Dr Reilly said he was braced for an onslaught of legal challenges from the tobacco industry and he would be “astonished” if Big Tobacco didn’t fight him “tooth and nail all the way”.
The minister said Cabinet had approved the general scheme for legislation which will make it mandatory for tobacco to be sold in standardised packaging with large graphic health warnings dominating the packaging making it more difficult for tobacco firms to promote their brands.
He said this was particularly important because research showed children were attracted to the bright “feel nice, look cool” packaging of cigarette brands and the industry needed younger smokers to replace the 5,200 people in Ireland who die from tobacco-related diseases every year.
Seventy-eight percent of smokers picked up the habit under the age of 18, he said.
“We know they are hell bent on delaying, and every year delayed in this country means another 5,200 people dead. So we have to move as quickly as we can. They [tobacco] see it in terms of another year of profit… that’s all it is for them,” said Dr Reilly.
“Be under no illusion, this fight has only begun. This is another important step along the road but each step we have to fight hard to achieve,” he said.
Recommendations from the health minister will now go before the Oireachtas health committee, chaired by Cork South Central TD Jerry Buttimer, for further discussion with the aim to have the new legislation in place in the second half of 2014.
“I want this to go to our Oireachtas health committee where it can be explored, where there can be widespread consultation, and where we can get this bill as perfect as possible before we publish it, and we then will continue to monitor through the normal processes other amendments that may be brought in,” said Dr Reilly.
Source: Michael O’Kane, Irish Examiner, 20/11/13
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