Mr. Niall Cody:

In the last couple of weeks, I have been reading about custodial sentences for known sellers. We have prosecuted these people multiple times but when one prosecutes people for selling cigarettes in small quantities, people complain about the sentencing. On the third occasion we prosecute someone for selling cigarettes, the judge starts to see it differently and begins to impose custodial sentences. This work will continue as we are serious about it and we devote a huge level of resources to it. We devote far more resources to tackling this sector than to the vast majority of our other audits. We closed off 7,600 last year, on a business tax base of multiples of that, and in 2014, we had 49 convictions for people selling cigarettes illegally. My colleague, Mr. Liam Irwin, along with officers from the Dublin region looked at the selling of cigarettes on Moore Street. We carry out raids on markets in other places, such as in the midlands, but we are usually accompanied by the emergency unit so it is hugely labour intensive and time intensive.