Ireland threatened with plain-packs legal action

JTI Ireland has told the Irish government to halt immediately standardized tobacco packaging legislation in the Dáil (lower house of parliament) or face a High Court claim for damages, according to a story in the Irish Times.

The company is said to have told ministers Dr. James Reilly (Children and Youth Affairs) and Dr. Leo Varadkar (Health) that it will take legal action if they fail to promise by Friday that no further steps will be taken to enact the draft law.

Reilly introduced the Public Health (Standardized Packaging of Tobacco) Bill last year when he was minister for health. He retained command of the file when he became Minister for Children and Varadkar took over the health portfolio.

The firm’s legal threat to the two ministers was said to have been copied to Taoiseach (prime minister) Enda Kenny.

In what the Times referred to as ‘sweeping assertions to a sovereign government’, JTI was said to have claimed the state had no right to enact the draft law and – in effect – instructed the ministers to halt its parliamentary passage while a British case in Europe’s highest court continued.

‘For these reasons, please undertake to us as soon as possible and, in any event, on or before 20 February 2015 that no steps will be taken to enact the Bill pending the outcome of the reference to the Courts of Justice of the EU by the High Court of England and Wales,’ the letter was quoted as saying.

‘If this undertaking is not forthcoming, JTI proposes to issue proceedings challenging the competence of Ireland to enact this legislation and, in the absence of an appropriate undertaking in relation to the legislation pending the outcome of these proceedings, will seek such relief as is appropriate from the High Court.’

In a statement to the Times, Reilly said there was no justification for delaying the legislation further. “As Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, my responsibility is to progress measures that will protect children and stop them from taking up smoking in the first place,” he said. “It is not to protect the profits of tobacco companies.”