John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will support this measure but smoking is an addiction, which is always very difficult to deal with. I agree with my colleagues, who are on my right but on the Left, that price increases certainly affect those on low income or no income at all. It does not affect those who are addicted to cigarettes and can afford to buy them and it has been shown, time and again, that if a person is addicted to a substance then irrespective of how much the price increases he or she will buy them anyway, as with drugs. I find it difficult not to support the measure, though.

There has always been a perception that this is a tax-collecting mechanism because we do not ring-fence the money. We should show people that the extra money collected is ring-fenced into the part of the health system that deals with people addicted to cigarettes. People would then be more inclined to support the measure, even those who are addicted to cigarettes.

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