The bill which will introduce plain packaging on cigarettes is being considered at Committee stage this afternoon.

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs James Reilly will attend the Dail's sub-committee on Health to discuss the issue. The proposed legislation would remove all branding from cigarette packets.

The Irish Times is reporting that one of the world’s largest tobacco firms, JTI Ireland, has told the Government to immediately halt plain packaging legislation in the Dáil or face a High Court claim for damages. The company has alleged that the State has no right to enact the draft law.

Ivan and Chris discussed the issue on Newstalk Breakfast this morning with Chris stating: "Ireland is doing a first in Europe in terms of plain packaging legislation. The most noteworthy country to have done this before us is Australia.

"The Government says there are anti-fraud measures that you can put in place because one of the big fears of groups like IBEC is that this will actually make it a lot easier to counterfeit all cigarettes.

"This JTI thing is something new.

"They have basically given two ministers, the Minister for Health and the Minister for Children until Friday to cease and desist or they will go to the courts."

Ivan said: "Like the time we banned smoking in public places, we were world leaders and leaders in Europe. In this case, we're leaders again. They're saying under EU directives, it can't be done.

"It will be interesting to see how it evolves, big business, global giant vs state."

Chris said: "I doubt the ministers are going to cease and desist by Friday."

The pair also discussed the new surrogacy laws that will be discussed by the Cabinet this morning.