RETAILERS SHOULD ENSURE THEY UNDERSTAND ANTI-SMOKING LAWS - KENNY

Posted on November 20, 2014 5:26 PM   |   Permanent Link   

Labour TD, Sean Kenny, has said it is important for businesses to ensure they are up to date with anti-smoking laws.

"Tobacco is the biggest preventable cause of death in Ireland. Most people start smoking while they are young and more to the point, when they are underage. In order to protect our children we have to make sure they they cannot start and the best way of doing this is to ensure those that sell tobacco products are fully able to stop selling tobacco to minors."

"The laws for this are already in place and so I would urge those who sell tobacco to review how they sell tobacco and to make strenuous efforts to ensure that staff are trained to ask for identification as to whether a customer is over 18 and also to refuse to sell tobacco unless valid identification is provided where the staff member is concerned the would be customer is underage."

"In general, compliance with the Public Health (Tobacco) Act remains high. However, today's publication by the HSE of convictions that have been made under that law does show that there are significant problems remaining in terms of tobacco being sold to minors."

"I would also point out to retailers that the HSE undertakes compliance checks, also known as test purchases, in retail outlets to determine if retailers sell tobacco products to minors. If staff are not aware of how to deal with minors who might try to purchase tobacco, it is likely that they will caught sooner or later, as these tests are carried out by an actual minor acting under HSE supervision. Between 2009 and end September 2014 there have been 44 convictions for offences resulting from the sale of tobacco products to minors."

"I would urge retailers to be more careful in thinking about this issue and to make sure that staff are vigilant in terms of who is asking to purchase tobacco products - and where staff experience doubt, ask for identification and not to make assumptions that a person is of legal age."