Growing pressure to drop tobacco pack ban

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is facing growing pressure from business leaders here and abroad to drop Ireland’s radical move to ban branded tobacco packaging.

Employers’ group Ibec has warned him to “pause” the legislation or it will “expose the Irish State to higher costs from compensation” arising from legal challenges.

The US Chamber of Commerce has also told Mr Kenny, ahead of meeting him in Washington DC next month, that the ban “potentially violates important aspects of Ireland’s international commitments”.

Ibec and the chamber made the claims in letters sent to Mr Kenny on Friday and which were obtained by the Irish Examiner.

They emerged as parties yesterday backed Children’s Minister James Reilly’s bill on plain packaging, insisting Ireland would not be “bullied” into axing the plans.

Under the new law, cigarette packs would look the same, without branding or logos. Ireland would be the first EU state to introduce the laws. The Government wants the ban to commence in May 2016.

Ibec chief executive Danny McCoy said the European Commission had yet to give its response to the plans. He pointed out that legal challenges to plain packaging, focused on brand and intellectual property rights, were still under consideration in other jurisdictions. “In light of these factors, there is no good reason to rush forward on this issue and fail to take account of developments at EU level, in the UK, and elsewhere,” said Mr McCoy.

The same letter was sent to a number of Cabinet ministers.

US Chamber of Commerce president Thomas J Donohue said he was “delighted” Mr Kenny would visit the group in Washington DC next month as part of the traditional St Patrick’s Day visit. However, he said the tobacco packaging ban was a “denial of trademark rights” and “damaging to Ireland’s interests”.

“Furthermore, we are concerned that standardised packaging potentially violates important aspects of Ireland’s international commitments,” he wrote.

Tobacco giant JTI Ireland has threatened legal action by Friday if Mr Reilly proceeds with the bill.

Oireachtas health committee chair Jerry Buttimer claimed “misinformation” was also sent to TDs this week by John Player.

Mr Reilly said he and Government would “not be intimidated by external forces”, and that the State owes it to the “5,200 people who die every year” from lung cancer. He said he would not only continue with his plain-packaging plans but will now redouble efforts to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s and limit their adult sales in pharmacies. He said tobacco firms were investing in the products to “enslave” a new generation of smokers.

JTI Ireland general manager Igor Dzaja said last night that his firm would not back down on its legal threat and “stands ready” to file legal proceedings.