Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit will be opposing this motion. We agree entirely that tobacco products and cigarettes are harmful and damaging, they cause cancer and heart disease and they kill. However, while the price is undoubtedly a factor in whether someone buys a pack of cigarettes, the fact that people are addicted leads to price inelasticity and not many people give up on a product as they do on other products when the price is increased by a similar margin. There are other ways to reduce the number of people who smoke. For example, cessation programmes could be run through the health service. A total of €5.54 billion was raised in tobacco taxes by the State between 2011 and 2015 but a mere €33.7 million of that was used for cessation programmes. That is 0.6% of the total moneys raised. The Taoiseach says this is about encouraging people to quit smoking. If the State fully took on board its responsibilities to encourage people to quit smoking, a far greater proportion of the taxes raised on tobacco could be used for education programmes and cessation programmes, as well as Quitline, nicotine patches, etc. The fact that this is not done begs the question of whether this is more of a revenue grab by the State than a health measure.

The price increases in recent years have also had the effect of boosting the black market for tobacco products. It is reckoned that in 2007, 6.7% of tobacco products purchased in the State were purchased on the black market. By 2009, that had risen sharply to 19.8% and by 2014, it had risen again to 23%. Nearly a quarter of all tobacco products in the State in 2014 were bought on the black market and the year on year tax increases have been a significant factor in that.

These tax increases are regressive and people on low incomes are hit hard by the policy and it is a key reason we are opposing it.

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I reiterate that these are harmful, damaging products that kill people. We want to see far less smoking and use of tobacco products within society but we believe the key way to do this is through proper funding of the cessation programmes rather than a regressive tax which hits people hard, particularly people on low incomes.

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