Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I can think of a few taxes that would have more of an effect on their collection tomorrow than customs and excise tax. I will leave the decisions on cigarettes to budget day, but I am aware of the fact that the impact of plain packaging efforts to reduce the illegal supply of cigarettes into our country has changed the ability of that form of taxation to yield lots of additional money. If we were to decide to do it, and these are all decisions that will be made in the coming days, I would never intend that to be a tax that could yield the kind of money needed to fund big improvements in services or changes in our tax code elsewhere.