Sir, – So JTI Ireland wants to retain branded packaging on its tobacco products. No surprise there, but to use the argument that it would endanger its 100 direct employees and employment in 3,100 retail outlets is a bit of an understatement.
The tobacco company should have counted the several thousand employed in our over-run health service, and how do the 5,200 tobacco-related fatalities annually get buried? – Yours, etc, JOHN K ROGERS Rathowen, Westmeath.
Sir, – As the Dáil debates measures to ban branded designs on tobacco packaging, JTI Ireland has displayed incredible brazenness by threatening legal action against the Government if the legislation is passed.
The tobacco firm’s fear seems to be that Ireland’s legislation will set off a trend amongst other EU states, in much the same way we did in 2004 with the workplace smoking ban. One can only hope their fears are fully and devastatingly realised.
JTI highlight in its letter to Ministers Leo Varadkar and James Reilly that the firm employs 100 people in Ireland and paid more than €665 million in Irish tax in 2013. While those figures might seem significant in a nation that is still in economic recovery mode, let’s not forget that 5,200 Irish people die from a tobacco-related disease every year. Added to that, it has been reported that upward of €2 billion is spent each year by the HSE in treating tobacco-related disease.
Too much is being lost in lives and revenue to the tobacco industry already every year. Hopefully our Government will not bow to their bullying on this occasion. – Yours, etc, JOHN HOGAN Ballyneety, Co Limerick
Sir, – Arthur Beesley writes "Tobacco giant issues legal threat over plain packaging") highlighting the plight of the Government who are facing legal action from JTI Ireland unless action is halted this Friday on the proposed Public Health (Standardised of Tobacco Packaging) Bill 2014.
The issue of plain packaging of tobacco products has been a contentious issue worldwide following its introduction in Australia in 2012.
Critics have argued that not only is this measure not effective as a cessation aid for current smokers and as a means to reduce the uptake of smoking amongst non-smokers, it also encourages and aids the illegal trade.
As a postgraduate student at Limerick Institute of Technology researching tobacco control measures in Ireland, I am very interested in the outcome of Friday’s decision.
The proposed packaging bill would make Ireland the first European country to do so, with Norway and the UK also considering this measure. Ireland has always been at the forefront of introducing innovative health reforms and I hope this continues. – Yours, etc, DIANE O DOHERTY, Limerick city.