Ireland to introduce plain packaging?
Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at 13:04 Touched down at Dublin Airport at 11.15.
Arrived at my hotel at 12.00, checked into my room and was greeted with a text that read:
Expecting statement from [Health Minister James] Reilly at 1.00pm to announce plain packaging memo agreed by Cabinet.
Oh, great.
Currently watching RTE's One O'Clock News but no mention of it ... Perhaps Reilly is making the announcement at this very moment.
As luck would have it I have a pre-arranged meeting with Forest Eireann spokesman John Mallon at 1.30. Perfect timing to plot our response, if the report is true.
I'll keep you posted.
Update: RTE News has just confirmed that the Irish Government is to draft legislation to introduce standardised packaging of tobacco:
Cabinet backs plan for plain cigarette packaging (RTE News)
Update: The Journal has the story here too – Plain pack cigarettes will ‘save lives’ and prevent child smokers.
Update: Ireland set to introduce 'plain pack' cigarettes (Newstalk). Includes a comment by John Mallon.
Simon Clark
I need a stiff drink.
Luckily I have arranged to meet some fellow libertarians at the pub above.
The Gingerman in Fenian Street is listed as one of the 'top ten bars to drink with the locals in Dublin'.
It's also the Taoiseach’s local watering hole. With luck he may pop in to say hello ...
Reader Comments (10)
Great news!
Hopefully other EU countries follow. Time to get with the rest of the first world (australia/usa/canada) and ban smoking in public parks/beaches/5 yards from buildings/outdoor restaurants/etc.
Europe is far behind, we need more anti tobacco laws. Smokers are a dying breed.
Great job Ireland!
Suck a big one, jon.
Apparently RTE invites comments but for reasons unknown doesn't actually publish them. I wrote:
"I suggest people stop and think about this carefully, just for a minute forget that Reilly is talking about tobacco and consider the merit in allowing authoritarians to dictate how consumer products of any kind are packaged. Because if you stand by and let the likes of Reilly and the social engineers he represents do this with tobacco you can be absolutely sure that it will not stop there. This is not about health or even smoking. It is about power. If you fancy Guinness glasses with diseased livers covering 70% of their surface or packs of sweets emblazoned with pictures of the super obese then go ahead and keep voting for the likes of Reilly. Perhaps if people stopped heeding those whose only message is ever tighter controls, even more laws and ever greater denormalization then Ireland might not have quite such a high smoking rate. The authoritarian methods have not worked very well so far but all people like Reilly have to offer is more of the same medicine."
Had I actually said what I really think of Reilly than I expect that I might have been legitimately moderated but I can see no good reason for RTE not publishing my comment, especially as there is significant evidence to support what I am saying.
Ivan D,
"To replace the smokers who quit, the tobacco industry needs to recruit 50 new smokers every day just to maintain smoking rates at their current level.
Given that 78% of smokers started smoking between 14-18, it's clear that the tobacco industry focuses on children to replace those customers who die or quit."
Are you REALLY against marketing tactics aimed at children only 14 years old to start an addictive cancerous habit?
Current smoking laws (and hopefully future ones) are aimed at this demographic.
If you're all for consumer choice and children smoking, well you obviously have other problems than just your disgusting habit.
I don't smoke Jon. But thank you for helping me make my point. I am not sure that you are really helping your cause, whatever it may be.
It strikes me that Tobacco Control are in a blind panic. The plan was to get PP LEGISLATION in several countries in the EU, the idea being to support Australia in its confrontation with international trademark law. Thus the rush to get something going in Ireland. It would be interesting to know precisely what the Irish cabinet has approved. I feel sure that similar legislative drafting was already well advanced in England, before the UK cabinet dropped PP, without the Health Minister making a public announcement about it. It strikes me that Reilly has engaged in a publicity stunt.
A similar consideration arises in Scotland. Get something into the newspapers, quick!
"Jim Hume, Lib Dem MSP for South of Scotland, will today launch his bid to ban smoking in cars with children."
Oh, right! Another ASH sock-puppet pops up.
Note that ASH ET AL are not saying much. This is because there is not a lot that they can say. All their imput in the way of surveys and studies has been done. Only tame politicians can make a noise.
I wonder ............. Is Northern Ireland going to be the testing ground for an ecig ban?
Update:
RTE has as yet published no reader's comments whatsoever but the article graphics have changed. Instead of the infamous eye and the gangrenous foot lifted form an old Times article, we now have the baby with oxygen mask and the man with the nasty looking throat tumour. I have seen one tumour like that professionally and am led to believe that the condition is most common in people who both smoke and drink “hard liquor”. Thankfully, such sights are very rare but if the public health lobby gets its way on tobacco, we can expect to see similar images on bottles of Jameson in the not too distant future. If the politicians give way on tobacco there is no logical reason why we should not see exactly the same image on bottles of whiskey. The rarity of that precise condition is not taken into account when zealots decide to shock the public into submission.
Another interesting aspect of the new image presented by RTE is that the packs portrayed have some official looking stamps on them and a nice harp. I suspect the idea is to show that the whole thing will be very official and will not in any way encourage the sale of illegal tobacco. In their conceit, the people behind this idea and their friends at RTE seriously believe that people who buy half price cigarettes from vans in the back streets of Dublin actually give a damn whether the harp on the packet is real or fake, or if it is there at all.
I had no idea that RTE was such a blatant propaganda outlet for people like Reilly and the extremist wing of the public health lobby. I am genuinely shocked.
RTE has now published comments. Perhaps it was a technical hitch?
Years ago, there used to be unfortunate 'jokes' about the intellectual ability of the average Irishman that were just that, jokes. Things like this 'move' raise the question of whether they were just jokes. (don't shout, I have some Irish heritage)
Since their ban and increased taxes, smoking rates have increased in both adult and youth (28%?) and counterfeits have increased (according to the police and Revenue). So what do they do? More of the same only harder, shout louder, wave a bigger stick, in other words, keep digging. I appreciate they are a small and relatively insignificant Country trying, desperately, to be noticed and please their masters in Brussels but this is beyond parody.
To believe that me seeing somebody waving something would encourage me to buy it is the ultimate slur, whatever it is. Sheesh. Were they really just jokes?
You just have to listen to Reilly and the Noddy's in RTE to realise that the Irishman jokes had a lot of truth behind them.