The Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children is to seek powers to investigate what tobacco firms in Ireland knew about the dangers of smoking in the past.
The committee chairman, the Fianna Fail TD Mr Batt O'Keeffe, confirmed last night that a motion is to be tabled in the Dail to give the committee the powers of discovery and compellability necessary for an inquiry. The Government is considering suing tobacco firms to recoup millions of pounds spent treating smokers for tobacco-related illnesses.
Litigation was recommended by the committee in a recent report on smoking, following the success of US states in winning multi-billion-dollar awards against the industry.
Mr O'Keeffe said it first had to be determined what the tobacco industry here knew in the past about the health risks of smoking. "I will be meeting the Chief Whip, Mr Brennan, this week, asking that a motion giving us the power of discovery and compellability be put to the Dail," he said.
If the committee secures the powers, it will organise public hearings to take evidence from tobacco companies, he said. "What we are talking about is an inquiry with powers similar to the recent DIRT inquiry, or a quasi-judicial inquiry," Mr O'Keeffe said.
The Department of Health is formulating a comprehensive response to the committee's report. It will outline its anti-smoking strategy and its litigation policy.
Tobacco-related diseases account for the premature death of more than 6,000 people annually in the State and smoking is a major contributor to cardiovascular disease.