Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the section and I agree with the policy but this is a very tricky issue. I have tabled an amendment on this and believe that a serious piece of research into this area would be very valuable in the context of the figures provided by Revenue, particularly against the backdrop of Brexit. As I commented earlier, with duty free, the landscape will change dramatically. In the context of a no-deal Brexit, that will have an immediate impact.

We need to look at this in a serious way and I encourage the Government to carry out a study on the impact of cigarettes, to be published early. The trajectory, which I support, is to continue to increase the price but not if doing so is counterproductive in terms of health outcomes. Duty-free legal cigarettes are at a price which is a fraction of what they would cost here and there could be an increase in the availability of illicit cigarettes, which is likely despite the best efforts of Revenue, so we need some work to be done on it. I would like to hear how Revenue would carry out such a survey and how we can quantify the number of illicit cigarettes in the marketplace. Revenue has given us a range and has stated that it is likely to be at the higher end of that range which is €27 million, the figure the Minister is using for costings. Does it need to be reviewed by Revenue? If everything remains equal, and discounting the potential impacts of Brexit, does Revenue have a view on the price point at which it becomes a negative? If we continue to put cigarettes up by 50 cent every year it will end up going in the wrong direction.