I thank the Minister, Deputy O'Shea, and Senator Henry for agreeing to come second on the list this evening. The Minister, Deputy Howlin, was with us for most of the evening and I was anxious that he get away as quickly as possible.
Adjournment Matters. - ASH Survey.
Thank you, a Chathaoirligh. May I share my time with Senator Honan?
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I welcome the Minister to the House. I know he has an interest in this topic, having given up smoking cigarettes himself. The adverse effects of tobacco smoking on health have been well documented. In this country cancer and cardiovascular diseases are the main causes of premature death. The smoking of tobacco has been implicated in both cancer of the lung and of the bladder, and a high incidence of deaths due to strokes and heart attacks long before the proverbial three score years and ten are very much more common in smokers than in non-smokers. In fact, the level of early death from cardiovascular disease in Ireland is the worst in Europe.
With our present health regulations it would be hard to see Sir Walter Raleigh returning from North America and starting smoking in Youghal with nothing more happening to him than a young woman throwing water over him to prevent him going on fire.
Much of the emphasis in health promotion literature is on stopping smoking. Advertising, while it is not supposed to be directed at children, is often subtle and appeals to children. I want to address the issue of preventing or, at least, delaying young people from starting smoking. We have not seriously addressed this issue. While cigarette smoking is harmful in itself, most surveys regarding the illegal use of drugs suggest that children who are on illegal drugs were already tobacco smokers. This group is far more likely to become involved with taking drugs and with the appalling social and medical consequences that ensue.
Under the Tobacco (Health Promotion and Protection) Act, 1988, and the 1990 regulations it is illegal for a retailer to sell cigarettes to anyone under 16 years. However, I am sure the Minister will have seen the results of a recent survey by ASH — Action on Smoking and Health — which showed that children aged between 11 and 13 years successfully bought cigarettes in the areas of Cork, Wexford, Carlow and Dublin in 90 per cent of cases. In all these cases there was an adult with them in the shop who witnessed the sale and it was verified by an environmental health officer who was outside. There was no possibility that these children, as they were so young, could have been considered to have been 16 years; they were all instructed to give their true ages if asked, but none of them was. Of the 500 shops visited, only 43 displayed a sign saying it was illegal to sell cigarettes to children under 16.
While RGDATA and the newsagents have expressed their alarm at the results of the survey, they know that no retailers have been prosecuted for illegally selling cigarettes to children under 16. This is the nub of the problem. According to ASH there is a greater problem in that many young shop assistants do not seem to be aware that it is illegal to sell cigarettes to under 16 year olds.
Most adults who smoke admit they began smoking before they were 16 years. Therefore, the sale of cigarettes to children is important, and the fact that charges are not being brought against any of the retailers means there is really no risk if they sell to children. A charge cannot be brought unless the retailer is caught in the act by an environmental health officer in the shop. It is the environmental health officer's direct responsibility to enforce the legislation. It must be possible to make regulations so that the environmental health officer could stay outside the shop and verify the sale.
Until this survey was published I doubted that anyone would sell cigarettes to under 16 year olds, but considering how ill-understood the regulations are and how difficult it is to enforce them, I am not surprised. I travel from my home to the Rotunda Hospital often through the Fenian Street and Gardiner Street areas. Quite often at around 9 a.m. I see young children going to school smoking, and while stopped in the traffic I have seen them going into shops and coming out with cigarettes. If the environmental health officer could be outside the shop there could be some hope of convictions.
There are other steps the Department of Health could take to bring the issue to retailers' attention. It should be essential to have permanent fixed signs over counters and vending machines and employees should be told about regulations. One could have a follow up of test purchase surveys, such as that carried out by ASH. This could lead to a reduction in the incidence of under age selling, as happened in the Liverpool area, where they managed to decrease the incidence in two years from 100 per cent to 3 per cent. In Britain the Children's and Young Persons' Protection from Tobacco Act, 1991, involved increasing the publicity regarding the regulations and rigorous investigation of any people found to be selling cigarettes to children.
Any gains made in the reduction of cigarette smoking by older people is being lost because of young people taking up the habit. Vast sums of money are not being made by retailers in selling cigarettes to children. The problem is that the regulations are not well enough known and it is too difficult to enforce them. I ask the Minister to respond urgently to the matter.
I welcome the Minister and I thank Senator Henry for sharing her time. Society does not accept that smoking is the biggest cause of death in Ireland. In 1995 alone, 2,000 deaths in people between the ages of 35 to 69 years will occur as a result of smoking, and overall 6,000 deaths from smoking will occur in 1995. Those who start smoking in their teenage years run a high risk and if they carry on smoking half of them will be killed by tobacco. Most of those who die as a result of smoking are not particularly heavy smokers but started in their teenage years. Young teenagers must be told the dangers of taking up smoking. They are not aware of the dangers. They should also be made aware of the difficulty of giving up once they start. I recently talked to young people who smoke and they said they should have been told how difficult it would be for them to give up once they started.
The recent report published by ASH, to which Senator Henry referred, said that any gains we have made in reducing smoking have really been achieved by older people quitting or dying as a result of smoking and not by fewer people taking it up. The Exchequer has benefited to the tune of £6 million in 1994 from the illegal sale of cigarettes to children. This is frightening and we have to ask if the Government is as addicted to the revenue it gets from cigarette sales as the smokers are to the tobacco itself.
The numbers of young women taking up smoking is worrying. It shows the Government's anti-smoking campaign to be scandalously inadequate. Men seem to be getting the message, but there is a huge increase in the number of women smoking. They are not aware of the danger to their health. If we look at the amount of money put into reducing the deaths on our roads, of which there are approximately 400 per year, and the smaller number of deaths from AIDS, and we see the massive road safety and AIDS awareness campaigns, we can readily appreciate the inadequate level of Government funding in its anti-smoking campaign. We have the frightening unenviable record of having the third highest rate of smoking of the 22 OECD countries.
It is essential that the Government and the Department of Health mount a massive anti-smoking campaign with particular targeted messages to young people in school. People are starting to smoke younger and younger, and the difficulty of giving it up is so great that many of them will continue smoking for quite a substantial part of their lives. We must graphically spell out the medical horrors of smoking. The work done by ASH in this regard should be commended and its recommendations should be implemented by the Department of Health.
I thank Senator Henry for raising this important issue and I thank Senator Honan for her contribution.
I have noted with concern that despite the efforts of the Department and the health boards to prevent retailers from selling cigarettes to children under 16 years of age, some retailers appear to be continuing the practice. My Department is currently evaluating the ASH survey and proposes to address the issues raised in the survey as appropriate. I assure the Senators that the points they have raised and their suggestions will be referred by me to that evaluation.
I regard it as a matter of prime importance that we discourage smoking among teenagers and young adults. My Department's prevention and education campaigns are geared towards this objective. It is essential that we take whatever steps are necessary to restrict access by children to cigarettes.
It is an offence under the Tobacco (Health Promotion and Protection) Act. 1988, to sell cigarettes to children under the age of 16 years. Responsibility for the implementation and enforcement of the legislation rests with the health boards and they have, in the past 12 months, been attempting to ensure that the provisions of the legislation are complied with. My Department has also written to the organisation representing retail outlets seeking their advice and co-operation on how incidents of the sale of cigarettes to under age children might be eliminated.
The Senators will appreciate that, given the large number of outlets at which cigarettes may be purchased, policing the legislation is not always easy. However, the health boards have been asked to ensure that those responsible for retail outlets are aware of their responsibilities under the law. In addition, notices prepared by the health promotion unit of my Department, designed for display in retail outlets, have been widely circulated. These notices specify that the sale of tobacco products to persons under 16 year is prohibited by law.
I intend to keep this area under close review over the coming months to ensure that we achieve our objective. I will also consider what other courses of action may be open to me to ensure that the practice of selling cigarettes to children is eliminated. I assure Senators that I take this matter seriously. Since 1970 there has been a considerable reduction in the number of smokers, which is encouraging. However, as has been pointed out, the percentage of smokers among young people is a matter of concern, although recently I got information which indicates that the situation may possibly be levelling off or even declining. Obviously, there is a great deal more to be done. I thank Senators for their constructive contributions and I assure them that their suggestions will be taken into consideration as we move to further the campaign.
I thank the Minister for his comments. The regulations are there and it is important that they are enforced. It was alarming that so many people working in retail outlets did not realise that it was against the law to sell cigarettes to children and that the notices which have been sent out are not on display. It would be a great help if the Minister could ensure that these notices would be on display.
The Seanad adjourned at 8.45 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 30 March 1995.