The Health and Children examines current and proposed health policy, evaluating and assessing the future planning of health services and scrutinising any proposed changes to the way healthcare is delivered in this country. Currently, the Bill on the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco is at Committee Stage.

This Bill is designed to introduce standardised packaging for all tobacco products and also determine the size and position of health warnings on cigarette packets. This measure will prohibit direct advertising of cigarettes to children. This is a welcome Bill introduced by this Government, which I am proud to be a part of.

Today, I will strongly question representatives from the smoking industry. This industry must be held accountable for the lifelong damage they are inflicting on the Irish People. They cannot attempt to say that this bill is not for the greater benefit of the people.

Below are the main questions I will be asking:

• 78% of new smokers in Ireland are under 18. So your business model couldn’t survive without children smoking. So do you really think anyone would believe you don’t want children and young people to start smoking?

• Do you agree that your products kill half their intended users?

• How much does your company spend annually in Ireland above and below the line promoting your products to retailers?

• Isn’t tobacco an enormously profitable global business which preys on the misery and illness it causes? How much profit did your company make globally last year? What profits did the company make in Ireland?

• To John Player, ‘Your industry has to find a replacement for every person killed by your products. Do you accept that your industry, of which your company is a major part, has to have 25 young people starting to smoke in Ireland every day to replace those who have quit or died from their smoking?’

• To PJ Carroll, ‘Knowing and acknowledging that “smoking is a cause of various serious and fatal diseases, including lung cancer, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and cardiovascular diseases”, how on earth can you, as a senior manager in PJ Carroll and the BAT Group, face your family members, your children, your parents knowing you are a purveyor of death, destruction and misery to so many peoples and families?’

• To Forest Eireann, ‘Do you not think that the state, to which we all pay taxes, has a perfectly legitimate role in encouraging healthy behaviour across a wide range of areas such as tobacco, alcohol, fatty and sugary foods and so on, so as the costs we all pay for health care provision can be kept down?’

• To JTI Ireland, ‘Research at the University of Stirling found that children who were receptive to your Silk Cut Superslims brand- and particularly its packaging in a light coloured, lipstick shaped box- were over four times more likely to be susceptible to smoking than those who were not. Is it not transparently obvious that this sort of colouring and packaging is aimed at hooking teenagers on to your product?’

Keep an eye on my website for further updates and press releases on my Health Committee work and progress made.