Mr. Niall Cody:

Most of the significant seizures of cigarettes involving big quantities take place at points of entry such as at ports. For example, this week we seized 999,000 cigarettes in three operations. Some 900,000 were in a container in Dublin Port, 40,000 were in a seizure in Castletownbere and the balance was seized at Dublin Airport. Generally, we do pick up things in markets, streets and city centres but they always are in small quantities because nobody is going to have big quantities of cigarettes there.

In regard to alcohol, we carry out test purchases in bars, which is not a secret. That has been done by excise officers since well before the foundation of the State.