TDs won’t back down on plain packaging

Politicians have insisted Ireland will not be “bullied” into cancelling plans to impose plain cigarette packaging by May 2017, despite a multi-million euro legal threat from one of the world’s largest tobacco firms to scrap the bill by Friday.

TDs across the political divide said they will not be “brow beaten” by “external forces” following a warning from JTI Ireland. In a show of strength, they pledged to back future plans to strictly limit the sale of e-cigarettes in order to prevent the “enslavement” of a new generation of smokers.

The high-profile stand-off surrounds the long-term plan by Children’s Minister Dr James Reilly to introduce, by May 2017, plain packaging on cigarette packages, a euphemism for graphic images showing what happens to life-long smokers,

Ireland is the first country in the EU to seek the changes as part of bloc-wide laws due next year.

Similar plans have been introduced to clear effect in Australia where they are being strongly opposed by the tobacco industry, amid claims of a surge in black market cigarette sales, job losses and little effect on people stopping smoking.

JTI Ireland, producers of Silk Cut and Benson & Hedges, has threatened to sue the State for millions of euro in lost revenue unless the plain packaging plans are scrapped, by Friday.

However, in a rare show of unity after being informed by the Attorney General that Ireland will not be liable for any payout, senior opposition officials backed cabinet in supporting Dr Reilly’s measure.

Speaking as the bill went through the cross-party health committee without amendments, a key step towards being enacted, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin’s health spokespeople Billy Kelleher and Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin both stressed the protection of lives far outweighs any job losses.

Noting the JTI Ireland threat — which was sent to Dr Reilly, Health Minister Leo Varadkar and Taoiseach Enda Kenny by Arthur Cox solicitors on February 11 —Mr Ó Caoláin said the pressure will just “steel our resolve”.

Mr Kelleher agreed, and suggested the introduction of the bill should be speeded up from May 2017 to July 2015 — a move Dr Reilly said may be counter-productive as the quick turnaround could “undermine” the State’s fairness to affected firms.

Despite the strong response, JTI Ireland general manager Igor Dzaja said last night his firm will not back down on its Friday deadline legal threat and “stands ready” to file multi-million euro legal proceedings.

Meanwhile, Dr Reilly said he and Government “will not be intimidated by external forces”, and that the State owes it to the “5,200 people who die every year” from lung cancer.

The Children’s Minister said he will not only continue with his plain packaging plans but will now also redouble efforts to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s and limit their adult sales to pharmacies which provide them as tools to quit smoking, saying he is aware tobacco firms are investing in the products to “enslave” a new generation of smokers.

Meanwhile, the HSE said the number of smokers in Ireland dropped by 70,000 last year.