Mr. Gerard Moran:

I wish to add to that statement and perhaps return to the question on blackspots. Revenue's experience is probably similar to that of the Garda. Earlier I attempted to say the following but perhaps I did not make my comments clear enough. We regard the matter as a geographically dispersed problem which fluctuates in different places from time to time depending on the availability of illicit cigarettes and the success, or otherwise, of our efforts to interrupt and disrupt the supply of tobacco products. As I said earlier, it is plausible to presume that there is a socio-economic dimension. It means that the activity is more intensive in some locations rather than others even within a very tight geographically defined area.

With regard to whether the tobacco industry has been implicated in illegal trade, we are not particularly aware that the major tobacco companies have been involved due to certain measures being put in place. I do not know but investigations may be taking place somewhere that may not have reached such a conclusion. The regime that was put in place some time ago, and to which I referred earlier, had a significant impact on the problem. The real growth area is in illicit and cheap white products where large volumes of meaningless brands are produced in far-off places that dwarf local demand. That is an entirely illegal operation in so far as destination countries are concerned.

We would need to have a track and trace regime and supply chain controls to have an impact in these source and transit countries.