Ireland edges towards plain packs
Tuesday, November 19, 2013 at 17:10 The Irish Government today announced that public hearings will be held on proposals to introduce plain packaging.
Forest Eireann responded:
Campaigners have vowed to challenge proposals to increase the size of health warnings and remove branding on tobacco packs.
The Cabinet today approved the General Scheme for the Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill 2013 and referred it to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health for review.
John Mallon, spokesman for the smokers' group Forest Eireann, said:
"Plain packaging is gesture politics designed to distract attention from more important issues facing the health service.
"We intend to challenge the Bill and we will be writing to Health Committee chairman Jerry Buttimer to request an opportunity to give evidence on behalf of the consumer.
"There is no evidence that plain packs will stop children smoking or reduce smoking rates among adults.
"The most common reasons children start smoking is because of peer pressure or the influence of family members. Packaging has nothing to do with it.
"The introduction of standardised packs in Australia last year has had no discernible effect on the sale or consumption of tobacco. Illicit trade, however, has increased, as many people said it would.
"Ireland already has a huge problem with illicit tobacco. Plain packaging could make things worse and that will have unintended consequences for children and adult consumers."
I'll keep you posted.
Update: Reilly braced for tobacco 'fight' (Irish Independent), Tobacco industry to 'fight tooth and nail' (Irish Examiner)
Reader Comments (5)
To be honest, Simon, who cares? PP does not matter. What matters is the Smoking Ban. It is THAT which has disrupted communities and devastated the pub, club and bingo hall industries. PP is the same thing as that silly doctor smashing up a smoking shelter - it is gratuitous violence since it will achieve nothing in terms of reducing smoking prevalence by putting teenagers off trying a fag. In fact, the probability is that MORE teenagers will try the forbidden fruit. But I must admit that there are no studies which suggest that it is true. That is because Tobacco Control controls what studies are conducted.
We have seen in OZ that the Gov has REVERSED. I mean, gone from 'full steam ahead' in funding Climate Control and Tobacco Control, to 'full steam in reverse', as can be seen from the the decisions not to fund Climate Control or ASH.
I saw that video of a Senior Doctor smashing a smoking shelter with a sledgehammer and thought, "That guy could just as easily have been smashing synagogues in Berlin in the 1930s"
Grrrrr - Please stop shoving the blame on "Family members" - Peer pressure is still the biggest factor.
We get attacked enough without our own side having a pop and giving ammo to antis to further their causes to label us "child abusers" !!
That line, apart from being untrue, will lose the PP fight because extremists like Reilly maintain PP is needed because we awful parents advertise smoking to kids on the packets we bring into the house.
Reilly hasnt got the balls or the clout to bring in plain pacakaging on his own unless he was backed by his gang of friends in the EU.
They're using Ireland as the scape goat all over again by patting them on the head and telling them they're world leaders.
It works every time, as well as the money and the promise of 'jobs'.
Reilly positions himself as a hero standing up to "big tobacco". That way he conveniently disenfranchises those who oppose him on grounds more complex than simple financial interest because the collective intellectual might of the media and Irish senate is incapable of grasping the ramifications of his creeping authoritarianism. I did comment in the Irish Independent to the effect that his approach will eventually see the replacement of drinking glasses etched with the world famous Guinness logo by a state approved glass with a large health warning and a picture of a diseased liver. Having created a precedent with tobacco, there will be no stopping the public health ideologues many of whom are motivated by their hatred of industry.
Junican - PP matters because in their eyes "It is the next logical step" and there are so few left towards full criminalisation of the consumer - just the car and home to attack and bingo.
That's why the issue matters so much. Our line was crossed with the blanket ban. We must hold that line now and ensure it goes no further in removing free and legitimate consumer rights as well as free choice.
Good news about ASH Australia. However, I'm not getting too excited about it. Crapman did his job of promoting hate against a consumer group really well. The hate is embedded in all of those uncharitable "charities" that still beat up our Aussie consumer cousins.