I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
I wish to share my time with Deputies Neville, Ahearn and Ring. Tomorrow, 8 March, is not only Ash Wednesday but is also national "no smoking" day. It is, accordingly, appropriate that legislation published by me together with my colleague Deputy Stanton, on behalf of Fine Gael – the Tobacco (Health Promotion and Protection) (Amendment) Bill, 1999 – comes before this House this evening and will be voted on tomorrow night. I hope this Bill will be supported unanimously by all sides in the House and that it will not be opposed by the Government or the Independent Deputies on whom the Government's survival depends.
It is estimated that 20% of all deaths annually in the Republic are attributable to tobacco-related illnesses. That means tobacco kills between 6,000 and 7,000 people each year. Six times more people die prematurely each year as a result of smoking cigarettes than from car and other accidents, alcohol abuse, abuse of illegal drugs, murders, suicides, fires, hepatitis C and AIDS combined. In addition, many thousands more suffer from chronic debilitating diseases as a result of smoking.
Smoking is the single biggest cause of preventable death in Ireland. It is a major cause of cancer, cardiovascular disease, strokes, respiratory illness, peptic ulcer disease, emphysema and accelerated bone density loss in women. Some 1,500 people die here annually from lung cancer. Smoking is a major causative factor in 95% of lung cancer deaths.
Smoking during pregnancy can impact on foetal growth and is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, including increased incidences of low birth weight. Higher infant mortality occurs in mothers who smoke compared with those who do not. The incidences of asthma is higher among children whose parents smoke. It is estimated that a child ingests the equivalent of a 100 to 150 cigarettes a year just by being with a parent who smokes.
Research has established that the mean survival of smokers is ten years shorter than non smokers. The earlier a person starts smoking, due to the addictive nature of nicotine, the more likely it is he or she will become a heavy smoker and will suffer a greater risk of diseases caused by smoking. Approximately one out of every three young people who become regular smokers die prematurely as a result of smoking.
Research has established that 80% of adult smokers who are addicted to nicotine commenced smoking under 18 years of age. The Department of Health's strategy for effective health care in the 1990s, Shaping a Healthier Future, published in 1994, set a target to reduce the percentage of those who smoke to less than 20% of the overall population by the year 2000. In the course of work undertaken by me as rapporteur to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children, in preparing A Report on Health and Smoking: A National Anti-Smoking Strategy, it became clear there was no possibility whatsoever of the State achieving this objective.
While during the 1980s the number of smokers in the State reduced to the extent that 28% of people aged 15 and over smoked cigarettes, two baseline surveys of health related behaviour among adults and school children carried out in 1998 established that the decrease in the overall number of cigarette smokers had been reversed and that there had been a substantial acceleration in the growth of female smokers.
The SLAN survey reported that 31% of the adult population smoke, with slightly more males – 32% – than females – 31% – being reported as smokers. More alarmingly, in the 18 to 34 age group, 39% of the respondents in the survey smoked; 38% being men and 40% women. The HBSC survey of children between the ages of 9 to 17 years established that in 1998 21% of all children across that age group were smokers and that overall 34% of children in the 15 to 17 age group are current smokers. In that age group just under 31% of boys are smoking compared to 36% of girls. It is clear that if the present trend in youth smoking continues, the number of overall smokers in the population will continue to increase and within a relatively short period, the number of adult female smokers will substantially exceed male smokers.
The report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children prepared by me as rapporteur, was unanimously endorsed by all members of the committee last November. This report concluded that the number of smokers in the State is escalating due to the substantial increase in youth smoking. The report labelled cigarette smoking as a paediatric disease. It is interesting to note that at his press conference today the Minister for Health and Children referred to smoking as a childhood addiction.
The November 1999 report proposed that a national anti-smoking strategy be adopted by Government, stating that:
It should be a central objective of health policy not merely to effect a global targeted reduction in the prevalence of smoking and tobacco consumption in the State, but also to entirely eliminate cigarette smoking and the use of other tobacco products by minors – persons under 18 years of age. Most people who suffer the adverse health consequences of using cigarettes begin their use before attaining 18 years of age. Only by preventing children and adolescents from starting to smoke can we succeed in substantially reducing the overall numbers of smokers in the State within a reasonable time frame.
The committee proposed a new national health objective:
That smoking by all persons under 18 years be entirely eliminated by 2005 and that by that date adult smokers be reduced to below 15% of those aged 18 years and over.
It should be a central objective of our national health policy to eliminate youth smoking. Elimination of youth smoking cannot be achieved by one single initiative. As the November 1999 report states:
A comprehensive multi-faceted approach with a mixture of strategies is required to put in place an effective tobacco control and elimination programme.
While it is an important measure, this Bill is merely one of the many initiatives required if we are to truly and properly confront the problem of youth smoking. I will now to turn to the provisions of the Bill and will then refer briefly to a variety of other initiatives required to eliminate youth smoking. I also want to put the Bill's proposals in context.
As part of its recommendations for a new legislative framework relating to cigarettes and tobacco, the November 1999 report proposed that the current prohibition on the sale of cigarettes to under 16s should be replaced by a prohibition on the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to persons under 18 years of age. It also stated that it should be an offence to have cigarette vending machines in any premises into which any person under 18 years of age is permitted to enter or be present.
The report recommended a number of other related changes in our law, of direct relevance to youth smoking, all of which are contained in the Bill before the House. Section 2 renders it an offence to sell cigarettes or other tobacco products to any person under the age of 18 years "whether for his or her own use or otherwise" or "to sell cigarettes to any person acting on behalf of a person under the age of 18 years". This section also renders it an offence to keep a cigarette vending machine "in any premises frequented by a person or persons under the age of 18 years".
As a consequence of these provisions, the age bar on the sale of cigarettes to children would be increased from 16 to 18 years. Moreover, the current fine of £500 which can be imposed for under-age sales of cigarettes is increased to £2,500. A person convicted of a second or further offence of the under-age sale of cigarettes is, under the terms of Bill, liable to a fine of up to £5,000 and/or a term of imprisonment not exceeding six months or, as an alternative, can be directed by the courts to undertake community service.
Surveys undertaken in recent years have established that a substantial number of retailers are ignoring the current prohibition on the sale of cigarettes to children under 16. The increased penalties which can be imposed on under-age sales by virtue of this Bill should ensure proper compliance with the law, provided of course that application of the law is properly supervised and enforced.
As recommended in the November 1999 report, the Bill contains new provisions relating to age verification. The shopkeeper prosecuted for selling cigarettes to a person under age may establish in his or her defence that "the person to whom the tobacco products were sold had upon request furnished to him or her" a specified age verification document, confirming the purchaser to be 18 years of age or older. For such a defence to work, the court must be satisfied that it was "reasonable to regard the documentation concerned as authentic and as applicable to the person to whom the tobacco products were sold". Similar provisions are in force in a number of states in the United States which have been effective in substantially reducing under age sales and ensuring that cigarette retailers are conscious of their legal obligation not to sell cigarettes to under age purchasers.
Section 3 requires retail outlets which sell cigarettes, at the point of sale, to exhibit in a prominent position notices warning of, "(a) the addictive and health dangers posed by cigarettes" and "(b) the age restriction on sale and the vendors obligation to ask for age verification". This provision also implements recommendations contained in the November 1999 report. It also replicates measures implemented in other countries seeking to confront the problems posed by youth smoking. By giving notice of the retailer's obligation to seek age verification, cigarette purchasers are warned that such verification may be sought and, when seeking it, retailers can point to the obligation the law imposes on them.
In accordance with the recommendation contained in the November 1999 report, a retailer who fails to exhibit the required notices is liable to criminal prosecution and to the imposition of the same penalties as can be imposed on a retailer who engages in under age sales. The Bill provides for regulations to enable the Minister for Health to specify the documentation that a shop retailer may rely upon for age verification and the nature of the notices which are to be exhibited in cigarette retail outlets. Under section 5 of the Bill, every regulation made under it must be laid in the usual way before each House of the Oireachtas.
Section 6 of the Bill provides for summary proceedings to be taken in relation to any offences committed under it. Provision is also made for prosecutions to be brought by either the Garda or a health board officer, such as an environmental health officer. Section 7 provides for the repeal of section 3 of the 1988 Act, which renders it unlawful to sell cigarettes to persons under 16 years. Section 8 provides for the Bill to come into force one calendar month after its passing and section 9 contains the usual provisions concerning the short title and collective citation.
The Minister for Health today launched a report commissioned by his predecessor, Towards a Tobacco Free Society. Many of the proposals relating to youth smoking contained in this report are similar to those contained in the November 1999 report. The measures contained in the Bill which is tonight before this House, if enacted, would effectively put in place the prohibition on the sale of cigarettes to under 18s and the controls on cigarette vending machines proposed in the report launched by the Minister today.
I emphasise that this Bill will not of itself solve the problems of youth smoking. It is merely one of the many initiatives required if we are truly to tackle the enormous health problems created by smoking within our society. If we are not merely to reduce but eventually to eliminate youth smoking a broad range of other initiatives is required. These are detailed in the November 1999 report which I also would include in the context of young people: targeted child smoking prevention and cessation programmes; the empowerment of and activation of a national anti-smoking, anti-tobacco youth organisation such as the one currently in existence in Florida State in the United States; explicit anti-smoking television, cinema and press advertising campaigns; a ban on all tobacco advertising, sponsorship and patronage; the free provision of nicotine replacement products to those who require them; provision for the imposition of a levy on tobacco companies whose cigarette brand or brands increase under age market share; the elimination of smoking in public places such as pubs and restaurants to protect children and adults from the health risks of passive smoking; annual increases in tobacco taxes in excess of cost of living increases; and active enforcement of smoking prohibitions and controls.
It is welcome that in response to the provisions contained in the November 1999 report the Minister for Finance increased cigarette taxes by 50p for a packet of 20. It has been established that young people are price sensitive and that the more expensive cigarettes become the lesser the number of young people who commence smoking. This was also acknowledged by the Minister today. It is, however, disappointing that the Minister did not today commit the Government to an increase in tobacco taxes annually of 5% in excess of the rate of inflation as proposed in the November 1999 report and as called for today by the National Youth Council.
It is a disgrace that during the tenure of the present Government there has been no effective multi-media anti-smoking campaign to discourage children and adolescents from taking up the habit. The Government will this year receive £1 billion in tobacco taxes, £130 million of which alone derive from the 50p on a pack of 20 increase announced in the last budget. In 1999 the tobacco companies in Ireland alone spent in excess of £7 million on tobacco advertising and sponsorship. In 1999, a mere £250,000 was given to the health promotion unit of the Department of Health for its anti-smoking campaign. I am calling on the Government to allocate immediately the funds required to launch, in the first half of this year, an effective anti-smoking television and cinema campaign similar to the campaign so successfully launched in Florida State in 1998. It is disappointing that the Minister has today made no commitment to such a campaign.
Many millions of pounds are spent internationally by tobacco companies on cigarette promotion. Such international expenditure also substantially influences young people in Ireland. For example, tobacco sponsorship of Grand Prix racing is designed to glamorise cigarettes and the cigarette smoker and to disguise the fact that cigarettes are the only consumable product sold by manufacturers in the knowledge that they will ultimately kill many of their customers. I am calling on the Government to require RTE when broadcasting Grand Prix racing and other sporting events sponsored by cigarette companies to carry, for free, appropriate anti-smoking advertising targeted at young people. It is disappointing that the Minister failed to announce today that the Government intends to impose any such obligation on RTE, despite the fact that the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children called for one.
I welcome the fact that the work of the joint Oireachtas committee stimulated the Government into finally attempting to formulate an anti-smoking strategy. I welcome the fact that the report I spent six months compiling for that committee has finally galvanised the Government at least to consider what action should be taken by it. While I welcome publication of today's report in so far as it reflects recommendations contained in the November 1999 report, it is regrettable that the Minister has totally failed to bite the bullet on a number of crucial issues which must be addressed if we are to have a truly tobacco free society. The November 1999 report recommended that smoking be banned in restaurants and public houses. The Minister's report published today acknowledges that there is now "irrefutable evidence that environmental tobacco smoke is a real and substantial threat to health". In advocating a change of attitude to smoking the Minister's report laments that "the efficacy of our existing measures is compromised by social ambivalence towards tobacco use". Regrettably, the Minister appears today to have continued to endorse such ambivalence. Much of today's youth culture is centred around public houses and the joint committee acknowledge the reality that children between the ages of 15-18 frequently socialise in public houses, as do a large number of young people between the ages of 18-34, 39% of whom we know smoke.
The joint committee also expressed concern about the health impact of environmental tobacco smoke, or passive smoking, not only on children but also on adults in both public houses and restaurants. It categorically stated that smoking should be banned in both public houses and res taurants. The Minister should explain to the House why he has failed to implement this important recommendation endorsed unanimously by the Joint Committee on Health and Children. Is he afraid to take on the political interests which need to be taken on to ensure such a ban can be imposed and properly implemented, as has occurred in other parts of the world?
The November 1999 report set an identifiable objective of eliminating youth smoking by 2005 and reducing adult smoking to less than 15% of the population. It is also disappointing that the Minister's report published today sets no such clear objective nor does it expressly endorse the proposal of the joint committee to provide integrated, comprehensive primary and secondary school anti-smoking programmes that go well beyond the current programmes in existence. While the Minister promises the nicotine replacement therapy will be made available free of charge it is not clear when this will occur, when it will be made available or to whom. It seems from today's report it will be made available only to a limited number of people participating in smoking cessation programmes and will be subject to unspecified conditions. The Minister should immediately make tobacco replacement therapy products available freely to all of those entitled to free medical care under the general medical scheme and extend the drug payment scheme to such products.
The Minister in response to our bringing forward this Bill announced at a press conference today various plans the Government proposes to implement to confront the enormous health problems posed by smoking. The Bill before the House is a litmus test of the Government's true commitment to take genuine action to tackle this problem. I believe the Government should this afternoon have gone further in the commitments made by it, but many will still welcome the fact that after almost three years in office it at last appears to have a policy framework which it proposes to implement. If the Government tomorrow night votes down this Bill, its credibility on this major issue will be seriously damaged and the press conference held by the Minister today will be seen to be nothing more than a crass political public relations exercise.
I hope when the Minister responds he will indicate to the House that the Government will not oppose this measure, that it will be supportive of it, and that the completion of Second Stage of the Bill this week will facilitate the measure speedily going to Committee Stage to facilitate its enactment into law before the Easter vacation.