Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Cigarette sales should be regulated and any excess should go into harm reduction and to major programmes to assist people in ending addiction. Prohibitionism on alcohol or tobacco does not work so how can we assist people in not smoking or drinking to excess? Jacking up prices is put across as an effective measure. That is now being challenged quite strongly. It is true that a graph in Euromonitor International shows that between 2004 and 2014 as the price went up, consumption went down, but it also showed that over that period the amount of untaxed cigarettes sold, those from the black market, rocketed. In fact, people are turning to untaxed cigarettes and probably even more unhealthy cigarettes.

In a 2013 budget debate, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, said:

Many issues arise with regard to the tobacco and cigarette business... I am not sure about the statistic that every €1 increase in the price of a packet of cigarettes reduces smoking. It is possible that what appears to be a reduction in consumption is simply a transfer of consumption to smuggled cigarettes.

The Revenue Commissioners made exactly the same point in a report in 2011. Nevertheless, we are here again under the guise of saying with certainty that this increase will reduce consumption, which is not the case.

I oppose this rise. It is a tax on poor people among whom cigarette smoking is unfortunately more prevalent, and it is regressive. We should have major investment in alternative ways of helping people to quit addiction.

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