Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 18:

In page 109, to delete lines 15 to 41.

This amendment relates to the increase in the price of tobacco products and I will not tear the backside out of it. The House passed the resolutions on budget night and we have debated the matter since. This Report Stage debate follows our previous consideration of the Bill on Second and Committee Stages. I have tabled this amendment to reiterate that the increase in the price of cigarettes which I do not oppose has nothing to do with the promotion of public health. The problem is that the market is flooded with illegal cigarettes, or contraband cigarettes, to use the proper terminology I learned from Deputy Peter Mathews the last day, that can be bought in any town or village for €4. If the Government was serious in this regard, it would ring-fence some of the huge profits the State brings in from the imposition of duty on cigarettes to deal with the sale of cigarettes on the black market. I have tabled this amendment to ask it to do so. I am not opposing the price increase; I am saying it should be done in a genuine manner. I am only opposing it in so far as I do not believe it is about public health. It could be argued that the increase in the price of cigarettes will dissuade people from buying cigarettes. That may be a valid argument, but my view is that the price increase will push people into buying cigarettes for €4. In such circumstances, the State receives no tax and people smoke more because they are getting cigarettes for half the price. This issue needs to be considered in a genuine manner. Television documentaries have exposed the lack of scanning equipment and facilities available to be used when lorries arrive in this country. The black market activity is an issue. If the Government was proposing to increase the price of cigarettes to bring in €50 million - that is not the accurate figure in this case - and promising to use that money directly to tackle and stamp out the illegal sale of cigarettes, I would support it.

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