Ms Kathleen O'Meara:

Last year, €1.36 billion went to the Exchequer in the form of tobacco tax. It is difficult to quantify the tobacco companies' profits in Ireland. In the UK, Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco earn 50% and 65% of turnover, respectively.

We have done a great deal of work in devising a model specifically for Ireland. From figures supplied through the Revenue Commissioners, we have been able to identify that the tobacco industry takes 21% of the retail price. In the UK, that figure is much lower. This is the gap that we are considering. I did not have an opportunity earlier to explain how the companies have done this in an interesting way. Generally, there is a price increase in every budget. In recent years, that increase has been in cent. Despite the fact that the tobacco industry approaches people such as the Deputy, the Department of Finance and the Revenue Commissioners and argues against price increases, it increases its own prices while the Government increases taxes on tobacco in the budget. Therefore, it widens its profit take and keeps its profits high. This fact has not been identified prior to our work. We are looking in that direction for profit. Normally, we would ask for a tax increase and we are not ruling it out. Indeed, we ask that members consider a tax on hand-rolled tobacco, which is currently much lower than the tax on rolled tobacco.