Joe O'Reilly backs raising smoking age to curb youth addiction

At the outset, can I welcome the Minister, acknowledge his cogent presentation of the legislation and also acknowledge his commitment in this sphere earlier with the vaping legislation. Personally, I think it is excellent. I take the caveat entered by the Minister himself that we can't be too much of an anti-state, but at the same time, this is a different sphere, we are in a different terrain here. It is about addiction, it is about health and safety, it is about saving lives. Smoking is pernicious, and my heart goes out to addicts, people who cannot give it up, and most smokers will say to you, I would love to give it up, but I can't. In any way, I am not judgmental towards them at all, because it is a pernicious habit. I am a reformed smoker or a cured smoker myself. I smoked up until about 25 years ago, and obviously, I am best placed to speak about it then, because I know it from the two sides, and it is hugely damaging to health at all ages, and it becomes progressively more damaging, and I know that I would not be standing here in the state of health that I am able to do now, or go swimming or go walking the way I do, were I to have persisted with the smoking. It is an absolutely pernicious, insidious and damaging habit, and it is polluting of other people around you, it is polluting of your own clothes and the entire environment. We are addressing the question of raising the age here, and I thought that one of the most cogent arguments you made, Minister, and a great argument, and a common sense reason to do it, is that by doing this, we will catch people who look more adulty at the 15-16, and we will give legitimacy to a storekeeper, or an inspector, or whatever, in halting them then, and make it much easier. I think that is a critical argument for doing it. I think the empirical evidence that you present in relation to addiction, in relation to the fact that 50% of teenagers with one packet of cigarettes become dependent, or need to go on smoking, is a horrific figure. The frightening statistic that you present of a creeping up, you can kind of rationalise why it might have happened in Covid, with people at home, and demented, and whatever, and stressed out, with relatives, sick, and whatever. You can kind of rationalise it then, but it is a little scary, and you are right, Minister, it does need monitoring, that now we have 15-16 year olds, up to 14.5%, from 13%, and that is an important, and not a good statistic, but it is not a great increase, but as you say, Minister, it is something that needs monitoring, observation, and careful watching. I am a parent myself, I am a former teacher, and in both roles I think this is important legislation. I know it will present, and I can imagine my great friend behind me, who is from the retail sector, among as many hats he wears, Senator Carragie may say to you that there could be administrative difficulties, etc., in the retail sector. I do not know what he is going to say, but I am assuming he came in to point out some of those things. Even with that, I still think that the balance of good lies in enacting the legislation. I have no difficulty on any partisan basis acknowledging the great job that the current tarnished it did, Micheál Martin did, in banning cigarettes in this country. I think it was in the workplace. I know, sorry, I mean in the workplace, yes, sorry, and in public arenas at functions, etc. Yeah, no, I do. It was a great progressive act, and it set a trend for Europe, and for the world, and was mould-breaking, and I acknowledge that. It would be ludicrous and ridiculously partisan not to so do. I acknowledge that, but I also say that this is a further progression of that, and I think the balance of good, the balance of good, any considerations around interference in lives, people's lives, the difficulty of administration at times, some of those practical matters are falling into insignificance when you think of what cigarette addiction draws to individuals, it draws to society, and there is a societal issue, a huge cost. Nobody for a moment is suggesting, and we want no misunderstanding, nobody for a moment would suggest that we don't treat the victims of addiction, with various conditions arising from addiction, that we don't treat them and give them the best healthcare in the world, and give them everything. But there is a societal issue here with stopping potential addiction, because there is a huge cost involved with the health services, and there is a huge diminution of quality of life for these people, and for the people around them, people who maybe, if a member of a family becomes a smoking addict or a cigarette, it develops a nicotine addiction rather, the misery and the misfortune that visits them, the individual, extends itself into the family now, if it is only because of the cost of the cigarettes, for one reason, the health in general implications, the example to a younger generation, children, do as they see rather than as they are told, you cannot let your children into a lifestyle that you are not living yourself, and it would not be difficult to find evidence to support that thesis. So that is another consideration. So no matter how you look at it, from the individual, saving individuals, the wellbeing of society, the wellbeing of a whole cohort of young people, I think this is excellent and right, and should be done, and I think any fears around it, I think, pale into insignificance. None of us in this room would have had the misfortune of visiting people in hospital. I have been in St Luke's on many occasions, myself, visiting people who are the victims, or who have the consequences of addiction to cigarette smoking, and there is no fault of theirs, and any of them, and I recall one example going out, a former member of this house, driving him out to see his aunt out there, and I remember her saying to us that if I could live my life again, and if I could give up cigarettes, and you hear it so often, you hear it from smokers. So look, we as legislators can do something, and I think this is very welcome, and should be done. I am completely in support of it. I am not unaware of the few difficulties that will be cited later, but in my view, by a long shot, the greater good rests with passing the legislation. Thank you. Thank you very much, Senator.