Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Smoking is a public health problem - I would not like my children to smoke and I say this as a smoker - but this will not work. This is a revenue grabbing exercise that will hit people who are already hammered and struggling yet again. The hypocrisy of the Government's position on the matter is shown by the fact that it has cut the health budget this year. I have double checked it since I said it to the Minister earlier. Last year, the Government allocated €13.3 billion while this year the figure is €13.1 billion.

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