"Ireland will be the first country in the European Union to introduce such legislation and the third country worldwide. Australia introduced plain packaging legislation in November 2011 and the New Zealand Bill had its first reading in Parliament on 11 February this year. I understand that other EU countries are also considering such legislation," said the minister for health, James Reilly.
"This represents a significant step forward in our tobacco control policy and our goal of being a smoke free country by 2025″.
Dr Reilly, who has been health minister since March 2011, believes the ban will help to save lives.
"One of my key goals as Minister for Health is to prevent our children and young people from starting to smoke. Approximately 5,200 Irish people die each year from diseases caused by smoking. These are all preventable, avoidable deaths," said the Minister.
"Given all we know about the dangers of smoking, it is not acceptable to allow the tobacco industry to use deceptive marketing gimmicks to lure our children into this deadly addiction and to deceive current smokers about the impact of their addiction. The introduction of standardised packaging will remove the final way for tobacco companies to promote their deadly product in Ireland. Cigarette packets will no longer be a mobile advertisement for the tobacco industry".
"There is a wealth of international evidence on the effects of tobacco packaging in general and on perceptions and reactions to standardised packaging which support the introduction of this measure. I am confident that the legislation will be supported and justified on public health grounds and by the fact that it will contribute to reducing the number of lives lost by smoking tobacco products," Minister Reilly concluded.
The United Kingdom is still considering the introduction of plain tobacco packaging, despite there having been no mention of it in the recent Queen's Speech.
