Tobacco control in the EU-15: the role of member states and the European Union

Punching Above Their Weight Through Policy Learning: Tobacco Control Policies in Ireland

“…The first is between legislature and executive in policy development, which has varied. In the earlier days of the late 1990s, parliament took the lead although the executive quickly followed Ireland confirms previous general findings that tobacco control legislation does not fit the general European 'party government' model in terms of generating party conflict (Cairney et al 2012;Studlar et al 2011;Toshkov 2013). …”

“…She utilises four policies (non-smoking areas, advertising and promotion, health warnings, and cessation support) and finds a similar pattern to Studlar et al (2011) with some variations. Ireland made consistent incremental progress in the 1990s and early 2000s, but then doubled its score in 2004 to become the European leader until 2007 when the United Kingdom exceeded it.…”

“…Studlar et al (2011) show that, for 17 different instruments across five policy dimensions (advertising and promotion, sales, nonsmoking areas, cessation, and public education) in the period 1986-2007, Ireland consistently ranked in the top third of the 'old 15' EU member countries. This rating does not even include its consistently high taxes.…”

“…Ireland specifically has been included in some of these broadly comparative studies (Studlar 2009;Studlar et al 2011;Toshkov 2013). The most widely applicable exposition is Cairney et al (2012), who organise their explanation of tobacco policy change in various jurisdictions across five factors that might influence policy: agendas (framing), socioeconomic setting (including smoking prevalence, economics, and public opinion), networks (pro and anti-tobacco groups and their allies), institutions (relevant ministries in the executive, the legislature, the judiciary, the EU for European countries, and political parties) and the knowledge basis (science and policy learning, including policy transfer/diffusion).…”

“…In recent years, the Republic of Ireland has won recognition for its first-in-the world general workplace smoking ban in 2004 (Gilmore 2005;Currie and Clancy 2010;Howell and Allwright 2005;2007) as well as for its overall high standing in Europe on tobacco control measures (Joossens and Raw, 2007;2008Currie 2013a;Studlar et al 2011;Currie and Gilmore 2013). This strong position is likely to continue with the 2013 announcement that Ireland will be the second or third country in the world to introduce 'plain packaging' of cigarettes, after Australia initiated this.…”