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

It is not good. My children are always trying to persuade me and we should encourage as many people to give up a very bad and dangerous habit as possible but for those on low incomes, who are already struggling and who happen to have this habit and addiction, this is just another tax on their income. A pensioner who has got a miserly €3 a week back in this budget will have that wiped out by this measure. That person will be down 50 cent a week. An unemployed person, a jobseeker, a lone parent or a carer, none of whom has seen any increase in their basic rate in this budget, will be down another €3. It is particularly a tax on the poor. It does not matter if a person is wealthy or well paid. It will make no difference to or impact one way or another on the predilection to smoke, and it will not for most people, but it will have an impact on their income. As we have in previous years, we will oppose this tax. This is a revenue-generating exercise, nothing else, and it always has been. In every budget in which it is put forward, there are plenty of places where the Government does not hit the well-off but where it could generate revenue through the corporate sector, financial transactions, the wealthy, and higher incomes. This is just another tax on the least well-off and I will oppose it for that reason.

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