Ireland has become the first country in Europe and only the second in the world to introduce plain packaging laws for cigarette packets.

The Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill has now passed through all stages of the Oireachtas and this will ensure that all tobacco industry marketing will be removed from cigarettes packets.

The product brand will instead be printed on the packet in a standardised colour and font.

The law also allows for the warning on the front of cigarette packets to be doubled from its current size - this means it will take up two-thirds of the front of the packet.

This warning will include a graphic picture warning. Such pictures currently only appear on the back of packets.

According to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr James Reilly, standardised packaging ‘will strip away the illusions created by shiny, colourful cigarette packets and replace them with shocking images showing the real consequences of smoking'.

"Some 5,200 people die from smoking-related deaths in Ireland every year - that is almost one in five deaths. If this public health epidemic is given the political priority it deserves we can achieve our vision of a tobacco-free Ireland by 2025. Standardised packaging is the next step towards achieving this," Dr Reilly insisted.

The only other country in the world with standardised packaging is Australia, which introduced it in December 2012. According to official statistics, that country's smoking rate is now at its lowest level since records began.

Ireland committed to introducing standardised packaging in May 2013 and is only the second country to pass laws on this. However, the UK and New Zealand have both progressed legislation on this, and France, Norway and Finland have all said they will consider it.

The news has been widely welcomed by a coalition of health and children's charities, including the ISPCC, the Children's Rights Alliance, Barnardos, the Irish Cancer Society, the Asthma Society of Ireland and the Irish Heart Foundation.

According to the coalition, fewer children will take up smoking as a result of this important legislation.

"The tobacco industry is against plain packaging because they know that it will mean a massive blow to their profits. Fewer children being enticed into trying cigarettes means fewer lifelong addicted customers for big tobacco. The passing of the Bill represents a great move to protect the health of Irish children," commented Sharon Cosgrove, CEO of the Asthma Society of Ireland.

The coalition noted that the tobacco industry only has one option left - to take the State to court. However when tobacco companies attempted this in Australia, alleging that the move to plain packaging was unconstitutional, the High Court ruled against them.

"The tobacco industry's allegation that restricting their branding is in breach of intellectual property laws and potentially unconstitutional has no basis. Nor is there any requirement in the Constitution for the State to pay compensation when restricting property rights in accordance with the common good/social justice as alleged by the tobacco industry.

"In fact, we already restrict tobacco branding through a ban on advertising and the inclusion of health warnings on the packaging, and other industries such as pharmaceuticals are subject to branding restrictions," noted Kathleen O'Meara, head of advocacy and communications for the Irish Cancer Society.

The coalition added that while tobacco companies have ‘deep pockets' and are not afraid to spend money on legal firms, ‘children's rights trump the rights of an industry that causes 5,200 deaths every year in Ireland'.