NFRN Ireland welcomes UK decision to shelve plain packaging
Lobby group wants Minister Reilly to follow David Cameron’s footsteps
Print12 July 2013
NRFN Ireland president Joe Sweeney
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has announced he is to postpone indefinitely any proposal to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products in England because of the impact it would have on driving up illegal trade. Retail lobby group NFRN Ireland has welcomed the news and said it hopes Minister for Health James Reilly will follow suit.
NFRN Ireland president Joe Sweeney said: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already called on policy makers to watch their step on plain packaging and stated that an acceptable compromise had already been found in the form of pictorial health warnings, earlier this week the European Parliament decided not to include plain packaging in its new tobacco directive and now we learn that Prime Minister Cameron is abandoning standardised packaging in England. Plain packaging means products would be easier to fake, independent retailers will be further squeezed by the counterfeiters and smugglers and Ireland would lose jobs and investment."
Sweeney says that Health Minister James Reilly needs row back on the decision to introduce plain packaging in Ireland. "We hear a lot of talk from our government about adopting international best practice, but Minister Reilly is being allowed to use Ireland as guinea pig when there is no evidence that the Australian experiment in plain packaging has had any effect. Politicians in other countries are opposed to plain packaging for reasons of international trade, intellectual property and most of all because of its likely impact on the illicit cigarette trade and the retail sector."
Retailers say the introduction of plain packaging on cigarettes will lead to a surge in smuggling across the country, which is costing the exchequer €570 million a year.
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