The Health Minister says he wants Ireland to become completely tobacco free by 2025. James Reilly says ministers are determined to stamp out smoking in Ireland for good.

He is planning to extend the existing workplace smoking ban to include the outlawing of lighting up in public areas like parks and beaches.

The Cabinet has already approved the introduction of "plain pack" cigarettes here. Ireland will become the second country in the world to introduce the measure after Australia did so last year. Mr. Reilly says the new packs will save lives.

The packs, regardless of brand, will have to be a uniform colour, carry the brand name in uniform lettering and have no logos or trademarks.

All packs will still carry graphic pictures of the health impacts of smoking. The plain packets will come into force in 2014.

Back in June, EU Health Ministers agreed to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes across the union. The Council agreed on a range of measures aimed at reducing the number of people taking up smoking.

The agreement includes new rules on how tobacco products should be labelled, packaged and manufactured. It also targets product 'attractiveness', with young people in mind.

In addition to the ban on menthol flavoured tobacco products the Council of Ministers agreed to increase the size of the health warnings on cigarette packets

Ministers also previously agreed on:

• mandatory combined (picture and text) health warnings covering 65% of all cigarette and roll-your-own tobacco packs
• minimum packet dimensions to ensure greater visibility of health warnings and rule out the possibility of ‘lipstick’-style packs popular amongst young people
• a ban on tobacco products with a ‘characterising flavour’ other than tobacco, like fruit or menthol, seen to facilitate smoking uptake by masking the tobacco flavour
• provisions for the setting up of a new EU-wide tracking and tracing system to combat illicit trade
• stricter rules for nicotine-containing products which will require those over a certain level of nicotine to be authorised as pharmaceuticals

Minister Reilly has told the Oireachtas Health Committee that he wants Ireland to be completely smoke free.