Mr. Niall Cody:

We are very active on tobacco. There are a couple of things we try to do with regard to illicit tobacco. The big seizures are at point of importation and we seize a big container.

Generally, when it involves tobacco, Revenue leads. In certain cases we are supported by the Garda, depending on who is involved. We seize significant quantities of tobacco. In 2017, it was 34.2 million cigarettes and this year to date, it was 27 million. In 2016 it was 44.5 million cigarettes and in 2015 it was 68 million. Those are mostly large consignments. We also try to disrupt the supply chain within the market. That is much more difficult because one will never catch someone with thousands of cigarettes. They might have a few sleeves of 200. We are regularly at all the markets across the country. There are challenges, as the stock of cigarettes will often be somewhere down the road and be stocked up.