Mr. Derek Byrne:

I thank Deputy Conway for raising her concerns about illicit trade. I am not sure that there is a particular location geographically. It is our experience that it happens throughout the country and is quite widespread.

I shall refer to the issue surrounding telephone boxes. We have issues around small shops operating the trade under the counter. We have issues around door to door deliveries. We also know about telephone calls being made but I cannot say that it is confined to any particular area and to any particular time. We think that the problem is spread nationally and demand driven. We operate on the basis that community gardaí are tasked to stay in touch with their local communities in order to find out what is going on. The Deputy quite rightly mentioned that we have asked for the matter to be included on the agenda for the joint policing committees in order that we can examine the matter and build intelligence. That means that if ten packs are sold at a particular location then we can see if it correlates with another place and decide whether to mount an operation to find the big supplier that will hit at street level. That is the way we would tackle the problem.

In respect of the issue raised by Deputy McLellan, we have engaged with the tobacco industry, as we are required to do, in terms of our approach to tackling the whole problem. The Garda Síochána has no evidence to suggest that the industry is involved in any illegal activity. In so far as it goes in dealing with the tobacco products themselves, there is nothing to suggest that the industry is doing anything other than legal activity.