Government reduces penalties for selling cigarettes to children

OPPOSITION TDs have expressed grave concern that the Government is being “hoodwinked’ by the tobacco industry as legislation was passed in the Dáil yesterday, reducing the penalties for shopkeepers who sell cigarettes to children.

There were also objections that industry representatives were consulted about the Bill but anti-smoking organisations only found out about it in recent days.

Minister of State for Health Promotion Áine Brady said the changes were introduced against a background of concern that the existing penalty for selling to children – a three-month ban on selling tobacco products – was “disproportionate in the context of penalties” for public houses and could be subject to legal challenge.

A licensed premises could be closed for two to seven days on a first offence and 30 days for subsequent offences.

She insisted that the three-month suspension remained an option and retailers on summary conviction could face fines of up to €3,000 and that the only change was that “the duration of the suspension should be a matter for judicial discretion”.

Ms Brady said “a policy decision was taken to leave the issue of the period of suspension entirely to judicial discretion”.

Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said the Government was happy with the original legislation but “now it is unhappy because of the loud voices of individuals whose vested interest is to sell cigarettes”.

In an impassioned but unsuccessful plea to the Minister to keep the mandatory three-month penalty for sales to children, he said: “I believe in freedom of choice. Anyone over 18 years can make their choices and suffer the consequences, but that is not the case for those under age.

“I do not want children taken advantage of by a vicious industry.”

It was wrong to compare alcohol with tobacco because no level of smoking was healthy. He said 40 per cent of retailers were still willing to sell cigarettes to minors and if they were “they need a strong message from this House and from the Government that this will not be tolerated and that they will pay a price”.

He added that the Minister should not let herself “be hoodwinked by outside influences with a different agenda, namely to sell cigarettes”.

Labour health spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan said anti-smoking organisations were unaware until a few days ago of the Bill while “the industry and representatives of those who sell tobacco were aware for quite some time that there were proposals to amend the legislation and they had consultations on the content.

“I object to this one-sided approach. We must ensure that those who sell tobacco products realise that the law is serious and that it will hurt them if they sell to children..

Sinn Féin health spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin pointed to WHO figures that smoking was responsible for about 5.4 million deaths a year. “Every 6.5 seconds, a current or former smoker dies and an estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide are smokers.”

Mr Ó Caoláin said the changes “send out entirely the wrong signal and represent a slackening in the effort to combat smoking and the grave damage it does in our society”.