Car smoking ban to rely on existing evidence

MINISTER FOR Health Dr James Reilly is expected to rely overwhelmingly on existing evidence to back up his case to have smoking banned in cars where children are present.

Dr Reilly gave his first public signal that he was prepared to make such a move in the Dáil just before the summer recess, when he stated his intention to implement such a ban.

When pressed on his intentions, Dr Reilly said he intended to bring forward legislation as “early as possible next year” and he restated his belief that it was morally indefensible for adults to smoke in a car in the presence of children.

He also said that evidence would need to be produced to ascertain the extent of the problem.

A Department of Health spokesman said the evidence would be collated from the World Health Organisation (WHO), public authorities in Ireland and in other EU member states, the wider academic and research communities and “key stakeholder groups in the community”.

When asked if the Department would be carrying out its own research, such as a survey of cars to see how prevalent the issue is, the spokesman said the “exact nature of this process has yet to be determined”.

The evidence will be presented to the public to back up the need for such a ban, but the minister has no proposals to ban smoking in private cars where children are not present.

The issue of smoking in cars is one that is being considered by the Tobacco Policy Review Group.

It is also considering the issue of whether or not raising the price of cigarettes makes it a deterrent and examining the evidence that suggests raising prices plays into the hands of cigarette smugglers.

The review will also look at cessation programmes which are currently available for smokers who want to quit and it will also look at bans on advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco. One measure that may be considered is replacing branded cigarette packets with ones that carry picture and text warnings and the brand name in reduced lettering.

Australia became the first country in the world to introduce such a measure earlier this month.

The Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2011 will make it mandatory for all cigarette packets sold in Ireland to carry a combined text and a graphic photo warning.

It is hoped this will help reduce the numbers of people smoking and, more particularly, encourage children and young adults not to start smoking.