Mr. Niall Cody:

We give huge attention and resources to tackling illegal tobacco but it is a smuggled operation so it is concealed. It goes back to the discussion we had earlier about evasion. We will only come across it when we come across it. We try to measure the illegal tobacco trade in the State in conjunction with the Office of Tobacco Control. Every year, we get Ipsos MRBI to carry out an independent survey of illegal tobacco products. We have been doing this since 2009. We publish the report and I have it here. I can give the Deputy a copy of it. The methodology has been the same since it started. It gives us a view of the position. In 2016, the estimated level of illegal tobacco trade in the State was 10% of the market. The level of legal, non-Irish duty paid packs which people get abroad and bring back legally is 8%. That means 18% of the market is not going through the tobacco stamp process. To put it in context, in 2015, the illegal market was 12%; in 2014, it was 11%; in 2013, it was 12%; and in 2009, the estimate is that it was 16%. We get this done independently every year. It is one of the few areas where we take that type of tax gap approach to try to look at it independently. Other bodies engage in and publish research and they tend to have a higher figure. Those research areas are supported by the tobacco industry. I have no doubt that in some cases it is in the tobacco industry's interest to have a higher figure than a lower one to deal with the argument about whether excise rates should be increased. In this committee I have been asked about our satisfaction with the estimates on the tobacco market and the increase. I said that a 50 cent increase now is equivalent to previous 10 cent increases. A packet of cigarettes costs over €11. I can make that research available to the committee.