Clear The Air News Tobacco Blog Rotating Header Image

Ireland

Delay in plain pack cigarettes a ‘missed opportunity’

As the new Minister for Health signs the European Tobacco Directive into Irish law, the Irish Cancer Society say it is a missed opportunity that plain packaging on cigarettes will not come into force on Friday, as originally planned.

On Friday, Simon Harris signed the European Tobacco Products Directive into Irish law. The new regulations include a ban on flavoured tobacco, misleading labelling (such as ‘natural’ or ‘organic), increased health warnings and stricter controls on e-cigarettes.

The introduction of standardised packaging on tobacco products was originally billed for Friday, 20 May but will not go ahead as it has not yet been passed through the Oireachtas.

The bill was initiated in the last Dáil, but did not make it past the second stage due to the “prolonged period of government negotiations.”

It comes as the UK’s legislation on plain packaging cigarettes, which will see them all be sold in drab green packages, came into force on Friday.

The Irish Cancer Society (ICS) have described the Irish governments delay as “a missed opportunity” to become the first country in Europe, along with the UK, to introduce plain packaging.

Plain packaging was introduced in Australia two years ago and has seen the smoking rates fall from 15.1% to a historic low of 12.8%.

The current smoking rate in Ireland stands at 19.5%, and Donal Buggy from the ICS says that the delay in introducing plain packaging puts the government’s commitment to be tobacco free by 2025 at risk.

“It is especially useful in stopping young people from smoking. We know that in Australia the daily smoking rate among 12-17 year olds has fallen to just 5%, compared to 8% here,” he explained.

The cancer charity say research shows 78% of people support the introduction of plain packaging.

“We’re encouraged by the level of support for plain packaging with almost four in five people behind it, while more than three in five smokers support it.

“The sooner plain packs are on the shelves in Ireland the better. Fasttracking plain packaging will put us on the road to a tobacco-free Ireland by 2025,” stated Mr Buggy.

Minister Harris said: “I look forward to progressing our Standardised Packaging Regulations in the near future.”

No good news on packaging regs

The European Court of Justice has backed the EU Tobacco Directive and told producers of packaging for tobacco products that they cannot use fancy substrates, designs or techniques to differentiate brands following the plain packaging requirement that comes into force on 20 May.

One such firm is Amcor, whose designs include the ‘scissor’ pack, which opens sideways to reveal hidden branding.

The directive will also ban packs of 10 cigarettes, rolling tobacco in packs under 30g and all menthol cigarettes, from 20 May 2020. Packs across the EU are required to have health warnings across 65% of their surface.

Meanwhile, the sector is on tenterhooks awaiting the decision of the UK High Court in an intellectual property case brought by Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International.

Many businesses due to be affected by the legislation are reserving comment until the decision comes through but the mood is not good. In Australia, which introduced plain packaging in December 2012, a similar high-profile and very expensive legal battle between the Australian government and tobacco titans did not go the tobacco lobby’s way.

Mike Ridgway of the Consumer Packaging Manufacturers Alliance says: “A lot of printing will be badly affected by the implementation of plain packaging. Plain packaging means standardised packaging doing away with branding and ID, having health warnings and an olive green background with a small font.

“It’s not just graphics, it’s the construction and the substrates. There’s no hot-foil stamping, no embossing, graining or anything that gives the pack any sort of particular graphical marketing characteristics.”

While the plain packaging law, barring a last-minute reprieve by the court, will be introduced in the UK, Ireland and France, the EU directive affects all EU states. Any converter who has decided to make up for lost printing income through focusing on packaging shape, will find itself at the mercy of a double whammy.

Ridgway, a former Chesapeake Branded Packaging executive, adds: “I’m a non smoker; I just think it’s excessive regulation and there’s no proof it works, from a packaging and printing point of view it’s affecting tins, pouches, the whole packaging industry. They have really got issues.”

The pro-plain packaging lobby, however, claims Australian cigarette packs which feature large, gory photographs, do work.

Research by the Cancer Council, published in the medical journal Tobacco Control last year, found 20% of smokers were trying to quit the month before the ban and 27% the month after.

UK substrate manufacturer API is one company that was actively targeting tobacco packaging and at Packaging Innovations at London’s Olympia in September last year, cigarette packets featuring its signature Fresnel Lens PET laminate took pride of place on its stand. API also produces foils used on the front of cigarette packs and the plain packaging legislation has “badly knocked” its business, according to Ridgway.

Printed tobacco packets will not suddenly disappear from shelves. Retailers have a year for ‘sell-through’ and the introduction of standardised packaging could also produce opportunities for creative businesses.

When the Australian ban was introduced in December 2012, enterprising label printers, including Box Wrap and Stickerette, decided to print sticker covers for cigarette boxes.

Stickerette has patented its whole pack wraps and now calls itself a global brand which aims to increase sales in the UK and the US under its ‘Your Pack – You Decide’ slogan.

The standardised plain pack design can be produced litho or even digitally, according to Ridgway.

Parkside, Amcor and Multi Packaging Solutions are among the packaging firms likely to be hit. The latter prints cigarette packets on gravure. Amcor Tobacco Packaging president Jerzy Czubak said the legislation posed “a real risk” to consumers.

“Standardised packaging lowers barriers of entry into the tobacco market, leading to de facto creation of scale benefits for criminal organisations trading in counterfeit tobacco. Consumers are exposed to hazardous contents in illicit tobacco products and there will be a limited capacity to authenticate and differentiate between products.

“Amcor Tobacco Packaging believes that standardised packaging represents an unnecessary intervention into not only tobacco, but also packaging in general – a legitimate and essential industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.”

Another gravure printer which is likely to be affected by the rules is Benkert. Its Alva, Clackmannanshire plant prints the paper which goes around cigarettes.

“Our argument has always been that if you take complexity out of the packs you’re opening the market up to illicit trade,” Ridgway says. “Over £2bn is lost through tax revenue losses per year through counterfeiting. That’s £8m a day. This business about increasing price is just not going to help. The projection is that by 2020 a packet of  cigarettes will be £20 and 14% of trade will be illicit.”

Countefeiting also concerns the BPIF. General manager at BPIF Cartons Neal Whipp, says: “BPIF Cartons supports any packaging initiative that has been proven to improve public health by reducing smoking. However thus far we have not seen sufficient evidence to this effect and so there is a risk that plain packaging may make matters worse by facilitating more counterfeit products at lower prices.”

Another fear is that the incoming rules will have a knock-on effect, in other countries and in terms of other sectors coming under the plain packaging microscope.

Alcohol is the obvious contender but concerns, espoused by the anti plain-packaging fraternity at least, is that fatty and sugary foods could also be in the firing line, as a way to be seen to be doing something to appease the health lobby.

The government claimed sound reasons for pressing ahead with plain packaging. In 2012-13 it spent £87.7m on services to help people stop smoking. It says the new packs will save lives and, in addition, money. Public Health England estimates a £500m healthcare saving if the fall in smoking seen in Australia is mirrored here.

So why not ban them completely? In 2014-15 the government received £9.5bn in revenue from tobacco tax and that excludes VAT. So we have a compromise which benefits some, but packaging printers and converters least of all.

Retailers must be on the tobacco sellers register: Council

http://www.londonderrysentinel.co.uk/news/londonderry-news/retailers-must-be-on-the-tobacco-sellers-register-council-1-7380119

Tobacco retailers operating in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area are being reminded that they must be registered to sell tobacco products under new legislation which came into effect on April 6.

The Tobacco Retailers Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 requires tobacco retailers across Northern Ireland to join the register by 1 July 2016. After this date it will be illegal to sell tobacco products if not registered to do so.

There are significant consequences for retailers who do not comply with the new legislation. From July 1, 2016, enforcement officers will have power to issue fixed penalty notices for failing to register as a tobacco retailer and retailers may also face prosecution through the court system where it is considered appropriate to do so.

The new registration requirement is just one of a range of measures being introduced by the legislation to reduce smoking among children and young people. Research indicates that almost 1 in 4 adults in Northern Ireland smoked with two thirds of smokers lighting up before the age of 18.

Conor Logue, Tobacco Control officer with Derry City and Strabane District Council, encouraging retailers to register, explained that “While Council has a statutory duty to enforce tobacco control legislation within the council area, during the coming months officers will be working closely with retailers to help them to comply with their new duties.”

Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Environmental Health service has issued letters to tobacco retailers across the district to make them aware of the new register and their new legislative requirements under the Tobacco Retailers Act.

The tobacco retailers’ register is quick, easy and free to join on-line by visiting www.tobaccoregisterni.gov.uk. However, application forms are also available from Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Environmental Health Section.

For further information on the legislative requirements on the sale of tobacco products and to request an application form to join the new tobacco retailers’ register, please contact Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Environmental Health team or visit the Council’s web site http://www.derrystrabane.com/tobacco

Tobacco Firms Lose Packet Legal Challenge

The European Court of Justice dismisses the final legal challenge to EU rules which aim to stop youngsters from starting smoking.

http://news.sky.com/story/tobacco-firms-lose-packet-legal-challenge-10268916

Europe’s highest court has rejected a legal challenge by tobacco firms against standardised packaging rules for cigarettes.

The ruling, at the European Court of Justice, essentially dismissed complaints that changes to EU laws went beyond what was necessary on health grounds.

It also paves the way for member states to impose further requirements such as plain packaging measures proposed in the UK, France and Ireland.

In addition, the ruling removes legal barriers to the banning of menthol cigarettes from 2020 and also electronic cigarette advertising.

The updated Tobacco Products Directive will take effect on 20 May though cigarette retailers will have a year to sell off their remaining stocks before the standardised packaging rules take effect.

They are designed to make the cartons less attractive to youngsters – with health warnings more prominent and covering 65% of a packet.

The EU hopes the move will cut smoking numbers by 2.4 million and prevent 700,000 premature deaths.

A separate legal challenge by tobacco firms against UK Government plans to remove all branding from cigarette packs is due to be heard on 18 May at the High Court and could be subject to appeal.

The packaging case against the EU was brought to by Philip Morris International, the maker of Marlboro, and the firm behind Rothmans and Benson & Hedges, British American Tobacco.

They argued that the bloc was abusing its authority.

But the ruling said: “The court finds that, in providing that each unit packet and the outside packaging must carry health warnings … the EU legislature did not go beyond the limits of what is appropriate and necessary”.

The Directive was due to be introduced in 2014 but was held up in the courts.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the anti-smoking charity Ash, welcomed the ruling.

She said: “We (now) await the UK court judgement, which is expected shortly, but we are optimistic that the court will confirm that the introduction of standardised packaging in the UK is lawful.

“From 20 May, all packs manufactured for sale in the UK will have to be plain, standardised, in the same drab green colour with the product name on the pack in a standard font”.

A spokesman for British American Tobacco said: “The reality is that many elements of the directive are disproportionate, distort competition and fail to respect the autonomy of member states.”

European Court judgement clears way for plain packaging of tobacco in Ireland

Big Tobacco arguments rejected by CJEU

https://www.cancer.ie/about-us/news/european-court-judgement-clears-way-plain-packaging-tobacco-ireland#sthash.TTszgZlV.dpbs

The Irish Cancer Society has today welcomed a Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) judgement that has stopped attempts by the tobacco industry to block the introduction of plain packaging of tobacco in Ireland in 2016.

The CJEU judgement upholds the rights of EU member states to introduce standardised packaging of tobacco products, where it is justified on grounds of public health.

The Court considered that that prohibition protects consumers “against the risks associated with tobacco use”.

The Irish Cancer Society says that this is a defeat for the tobacco industry who knows plain packaging works.

Donal Buggy, Head of Services and Advocacy at the Irish Cancer Society said: “Plain packaging of tobacco will save lives. The rejection of the tobacco industry’s case against the tobacco products directive (TPD) highlights the fatuous nature of their arguments and their fear that plain packaging will eat into profits.”

“Big tobacco knows that plain packaging, as a health measure, works, and are doing everything to prevent its introduction because they need to recruit 50 new smokers every day in Ireland to replace those dying and quitting.”

The CJEU found that the standardisation of labelling and packaging is a ‘proportionate’ measure and that EU legislature allowing for its introduction from May 20 is “appropriate and necessary”. The judgement clears the way for the introduction of plain packaging here in Ireland this summer.

Mr. Buggy said: “Today’s ruling represents the overcoming of another legal hurdle to the introduction of plain packaging in Ireland. What remains to be done now is the passing of minor technical amendments to legislation here so that plain packaging can be introduced in the very near future.”

The formation of a Government will, according to Mr. Buggy, “hopefully see the speedy progression of this legislation through the Oireachtas very shortly”.

The Irish Cancer Society warned however, that this will not be the last legal challenge to plain packaging either in Ireland or at EU level.

Mr. Buggy said: “The tobacco industry has deep pockets and will continue to fight these life-saving measures. Australia, the first country to introduce the measure, is still battling spurious cases from the industry four years on.”

Figures from the Australian Government show that since the introduction of plain packaging the number of people smoking has dropped to historically low numbers. Daily smoking rates have fallen from 15.1% in 2010 to 12.8% in 2013 – compared to 19% in Ireland. And among 12-17 year olds, only 5% smoke in comparison to 8% here.

“The louder Big Tobacco shout about this, the more we know it works.”

Mr. Buggy commended the efforts of the European Commission and Irish Government in “remaining steadfast in the face of enormous and costly legal pressure by the industry”.

“5,870 people die from tobacco related disease every year. The challenge now is to commit to public health, to commit to plain packaging and to reject the actions of a tobacco industry in crisis.”

Mr. Buggy said: “This is another big step towards achieving the goal of a tobacco-free Ireland by 2025”.

The Department of Health have committed to a Tobacco Free Ireland by 2025 – which means an overall smoking rate of less than 5%.

Today’s CJEU judgement also dismissed actions against the prohibition of menthol cigarettes and special rules concerning warnings, content and advertising of e-cigarettes.

– See more at: https://www.cancer.ie/about-us/news/european-court-judgement-clears-way-plain-packaging-tobacco-ireland#sthash.TTszgZlV.dpuf

How might Big Tobacco react to a rise in cigarette excise?

http://theconversation.com/how-might-big-tobacco-react-to-a-rise-in-cigarette-excise-57895

There now appears to be bipartisan recognition in Australia of the political stench of cigarettes. Labor governments have taken a dim view of smoking for at least a decade, but now even the Liberal Party is joining the attack.

As the campaign donations from the tobacco industry dry up, the Turnbull government has set its sights on a product that, thanks to its unfortunate tendency to kill off its natural constituency, makes for an obvious target. The government is expected to announce a rise in tobacco excise in the coming federal budget.

The current taxation debate is just a small part of a much wider effort to curb smoking rates. And with every successful legislative change in Australia, other nations are increasingly emboldened to take on an industry once considered too politically powerful and dangerous.

Australia’s plain-packaging laws are already viewed as a model for Ireland, the UK and France. Its taxes – among the highest in the world – have routinely been shown to cut smoking rates to historic lows. Its citizens now overwhelmingly accept bans on passive smoking.

Still, Big Tobacco will never give up its fight against regulation and taxes. It knows that for every day it delays change, it saves millions in profits. As such, it relies on tactics of deceit, delay and frustration, which it has developed and refined over half a century.

But it also knows that it can’t make its argument directly. Instead, it relies on rhetorically gifted proxies. To that end, Big Tobacco has collaborated with a global web of friendly lobby groups, researchers and free-market think-tanks, such as the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). Each proxy is expected to push an agenda, such as suggesting that research on tobacco smoke is “junk science” and critics of tobacco are “biased”.

Once the research has been completed, there are always media outlets willing to dutifully repeat the industry’s claims, which are used to build a narrative of the “nanny” state repeatedly kicking the mature and informed smoker.

Capitalism and freedom – for smokers

In the West, the freedom-of-choice argument has been at the heart of most of Big Tobacco’s campaigns since the 1970s. It’s a powerful idea, but it deliberately ignores the issue of child and passive smoking.

As such, Big Tobacco primarily relies on the argument that the state is trampling on personal liberty. When plain-packaging laws were being debated in Australia in 2010 – the first such laws in the world – the industry and its allies leapt into action.

The resultant advertising campaign was designed to portray the government and anti-smoking campaigners as part of a “nanny state” that was determined to tell adults how to live their lives.

An anti-plain-packaging advertisement.

(Stuck in) Nineteen Eighty-Four

The liberty argument may be a legitimate point of debate. But Big Tobacco also contended that plain-packaging laws would fail to deter people from smoking.

The IPA pointed out the tremendous monetary value of packaging, and Australia’s vulnerability to legal challenges that would cost billions of taxpayer dollars.

But, later, a senior IPA member released a study that showed spending on tobacco products had – controlling for other factors – increased following the plain-packaging laws’ passage.

Writers in the Murdoch press reported both stories, unaware of their contradictory nature.

Media Watch on how the plain-packaging studies were reported.

(Big Tobacco’s) crime and punishment

Another line of attack suggests that high taxes on cigarettes cause crime.

In 2015, the tobacco industry commissioned KPMG to study the effects of cigarette taxes on smuggling and black market sales. Unsurprisingly, the report said exactly what the tobacco industry wanted it to – going so far as to suggest that one in seven cigarettes smoked in Australia were smuggled.

As with all industry-funded “research”, government critics were keen to regurgitate the findings.

This is a distraction tactic. It is true that very high taxes, or a prohibition, will create a black market. It is also beside the point of plain packaging – which is to reduce smoking, while allowing for some free choice, provided it is informed and adult. Such laws have proved successful to that end.

The tobacco industry, insisting that we look anywhere but at them, wants to repaint a health issue as a law-enforcement one.

However, the tobacco industry is deeply hypocritical on smuggling. It systematically floods key foreign markets with its product, in turn facilitating smuggling in Western markets. The tactic allows it to claim plain-packaging laws and taxes cause the same crime it creates.

The heart of darkness

Big Tobacco fights in this way because of what it stands to lose.

So, the industry of death continues to exact its toll. It knew that people died from smoking and passive inhalation decades before it conceded the point. It knew of children taking up smoking – it even helped them do so. It complains of smuggling while being the biggest source of the problem.

Big Tobacco does these things because it is afraid. Imagine the profits lost should other countries adopt similar messages. Tens of billions every year are at stake.

In the tobacco wars, the strategic importance of Australia is critical. Big Tobacco will go to extraordinary lengths to ensure moves to quell smoking fail.

National (enforced) smoking bans improve health outcomes, Cochrane review shows

National smoking bans do reduce the harms of passive smoking, specifically cardiovascular disease, an updated systematic review from the Cochrane Library has found.1

Since the first version of this review in 2010, more countries have introduced national legislation to ban indoor smoking. The authors said that the updated review provided the most robust evidence yet that smoking bans have led to improved health outcomes.

A team of researchers based in Ireland included 77 studies, representing 21 countries, that investigated the effect of introducing a smoking ban on any measures of health or on smoking behaviour. They retained 12 studies from the original review and identified 65 new studies. Health outcomes were reported in 72 studies, of which 44 specifically assessed cardiovascular disease, 21 assessed respiratory disease, and seven assessed perinatal outcomes.

The review found consistent evidence of a positive effect from national smoking bans on improving cardiovascular health outcomes and reducing mortality from associated smoking related illnesses.

The clearest evidence it found was in reduced admissions for acute coronary syndrome. For example, one study in Ireland found a 12% reduction in admissions for acute coronary syndrome in the first year after the smoking ban, and another Irish study found an 18% reduction.

The greatest reductions in admissions for heart disease after smoking bans were identified in populations of non-smokers, the researchers found. Overall, they said that the evidence was of moderate quality in relation to cardiovascular disease.

But the effects of smoking bans on respiratory and perinatal health were found to be less consistent. Six of the 11 studies reported considerable reductions in admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and seven of 12 reported considerable reductions in hospitalisations for asthma. In the seven studies looking at perinatal health the data produced conflicting results, and the study authors said that more research was needed in this area.

The review found 24 studies evaluating the effect of national smoke-free legislation on smoking behaviour. Evidence of an effect from legislative bans on smoking prevalence and tobacco consumption was found to be inconsistent, as some studies did not detect any additional change in existing prevalence trends.

Cecily Kelleher, a review author based at University College Dublin, said, “The current evidence provides more robust support for the previous conclusions that the introduction of national legislative smoking bans does lead to improved health outcomes through a reduction in secondhand smoke exposure for countries and their populations.

“We now need research on the continued longer term impact of smoking bans on the health outcomes of specific sub-groups of the population, such as young children [and] disadvantaged and minority groups.”

BMJ 2016; 352 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i701 (Published 04 February 2016) Cite this as: BMJ 2016;352:i701

Operations exposes illegal cigarette trade in Galway

Illegal cigarettes can easily be bought in Galway city, an undercover operation into illicit tobacco trade suggests.

The survey, conducted in December by retired undercover detectives, reveals the ease with which cigarettes and loose tobacco can be purchased in the city.

It was paid for by one of the tobacco industry’s leading players, Philip Morris International, whose main brand of cigarette is Marlboro.

A Galway website dedicated to selling illegal tobacco was uncovered in the sting; and illegal cigarettes were purchased in city pubs, from customers and staff, as well as from people trading on the streets.

The authors of the report gathered intelligence that suggested illegal tobacco was also for sale in Tuam and Athenry. “In nearly every town now there are one or two outlets where you can buy illicit or illegal cigarettes,” said Kevin Donohoe, a retired Detective Chief Superintendant in the Garda Síochána.

All intelligence is forwarded to Revenue Customs and Gardaí, he said.

Mr Donohoe, along with Will O’Reilly, former Detective Chief Inspector with Scotland Yard, carried out the research into the illegal tobacco trade in Ireland. The pair and a team of buyers visited Galway and 14 other urban areas last year.

The team of four visited Galway on December 8 and 9 last year, and despite the extremely wet weather, found it was easy to buy illicit cigarettes.

In total ten illicit tobacco products were purchased during the operation. The haul included two packs of illicit cigarettes, one carton of illicit cigarettes, five pouches of illicit roll-yourown tobacco, and two clear plastic bags of loose cut tobacco leaf. The cigarettes were being sold at about half the price of normal retail prices.

“In Galway City purchases were made twice from staff in a public house, once from a customer in a public house, three times (including one repeat) from males selling via the internet, and twice from sellers in the street. Overall we found illicit tobacco products relatively easy to obtain,” the report said.

This letter is most blatant Big Tobacco threat to a Taoiseach you’re likely to see

http://www.thejournal.ie/big-tobacco-lobbying-2503768-Jan2016/

Carroll Industries threatened to stop investing in businesses if new laws come in

WE’RE ALWAYS HEARING about the influence of ‘Big Tobacco’, but this 1986 letter to the Taoiseach from the chairman of a tobacco company is about as blatant as it gets.

In the letter, Don Carroll of multi-national tobacco company PJ Carrolls’ tells the Taoiseach that the company may decide to stop investing in Irish businesses if a new bill goes through.

At the time, the government were proposing more tobacco regulation including increasing the size of warnings on packets and advertisements.

Carroll argued that his Irish-owned businesses would be hit harder by the laws because they depend so much on the Irish market compared to their competitors.

Essentially, he argues that the Department of Health is going it alone and not considering the consequences which could include Carrolls’ choosing to stop investing in Irish businesses:

picture01

Unilateral action by the Minister for Health, within his existing powers, decided on solely in relation to the perspectives of his Department, must have serious discriminatory impacts on Carrolls’ tobacco industry and investment capacity.

It could no longer contemplate the policies which it is now pursuing which envisage new investment outside the tobacco business of some £50 million over the remainder of this decade.

picture02

The final three paragraphs above letter contain a complaint that the Minster for Health won’t speak to the tobacco industry:

Surely it would not be unreasonable to request the Taoiseach to secure that no new regulations made by the Minister for Health pending consideration by the relevant government departments of the broader context involved.

Since the minister will not have any discussions with us, there seems no alternative to seeking the Taoiseach’s intervention.

May I say in conclusion that I am conscious of the propensity these days for special interest pleading.

Obviously Carrolls has special interests. But I do believe that an objective consideration of the balance of the considerations would be likely to result in a different conclusion from that which would be reached was action to be taken solely in the light of the perspectives of the Department of Health.

European court gives the go ahead for plain cigarette packs

http://www.newstalk.com/reader/47.301/61879/0/

“A wonderful Christmas present for children” – Minister gives ecstatic reaction

Minister for Children James Reilly has welcomed a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling that clears the way for plain packaging laws for tobacco products in Ireland.

The court has made a preliminary ruling this morning against tobacco giants Philip Morris and British American Tobacco.

They took proceedings to the ECJ over an EU directive which would see health warnings on two thirds of tobacco packaging.

The Children’s Minister James Reilly wants to go one step further in Ireland and ban tobacco branding on packets altogether.

He says: “Tobacco companies may have more manoeuvres, but the Irish Government stands ready to meet any challenge on the way to implementing this law.”

In its ruling this morning, the ECJ said the new EU tobacco directive of 2014 is valid.

Legislation to introduce plain packaging of tobacco products was unanimously passed by both houses of the Oireachtas, without any dissent.

Dr Reilly says more than 5,000 people a year die from smoking-related illness in Ireland.