The cost of tobacco products should be ignored when inflation statistics are being compiled in EU countries, the Minister for Health and Children has told the European Commission.
Speaking at a conference organised by the Office of Tobacco Control, Mr Martin said removing tobacco prices from inflation statistics would allow the Government to increase taxes on tobacco.
At present, "the fear of inflation has been a real impediment to increasing taxes on tobacco", he told participants of the two-day conference in Dublin Castle.
Higher prices would, "as day follows night", radically reduce smoking among the young, he said. "It will save lives."
With inflation figures feeding into wage claims, he appealed to employers and trade unions to drop tobacco costs from these figures and "to move away from any kind of tolerance of a trade that is killing our citizens".
According to officials at the conference, Ireland has to harmonise its means of calculating the cost of living with the means used in other EU countries. These currently include tobacco prices and the Minister has written to the European Commission in an attempt to change the way inflation figures are calculated throughout the EU.
Countries joining the EU would have to be persuaded to increase excise duties on tobacco quickly, the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, told the conference. The candidate countries had low excise duties, he said, which, if it continued, would encourage smuggling of tobacco into the EU.
Within the next three years, the Commission would propose a directive which would list the ingredients tobacco manufacturers were allowed to include in their products, he said.
"This will enable scientific advice to be made available on what is in the cigarette and why such additives are present. I will be seeking advice, for instance, on whether these additives make the taste of tobacco more palatable to the young first-time smoker."
EU regulations limiting the tar content of cigarettes and introducing new ceilings for nicotine and carbon monoxide content were being challenged in court by Germany, because the rules would also apply to exports, he said.
The Government was urged to consider suing tobacco companies by Congressman Marty Meehan, Democratic co-chairman of the US Congressional Task Force on Tobacco and Health. Lawyers in the US and Canada would be in a position to advise on the sort of litigation which might work, he said.
The Attorney General is understood to have retained senior counsel to advise the Minister for Health and Children on this issue.