Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, excise duties. We have just debated a section that impacts on people with relatively greater wealth than the type of people who may smoke cigarettes and so on. This section is very punitive on people from a lower socioeconomic background. The statistics show the majority of people who smoke cigarettes come from a lower socio-economic background and the effect of this section is to take money out of the pockets of the end consumers. This is the opposite of what we should be doing, which is to boost the economy. We want people to have disposable income and money in their pockets. This section will hammer lower income households once more. It is a return to taxing the old reliables instead of using a little bit of imagination.

I note the Irish Cancer Society suggests that we demand that cigarette prices be increased. It must be pointed out, however, there is the option of targeting the cigarette manufacturers for tax as opposed to the consumers. Again the Government has chosen not to do that.

We believe the Government has again chosen to implement measures that hit people who have less money in their pockets. This will be detrimental to the overall consumer spend in the economy which will have a knock effect on the retail sector. These are the grounds for opposing this section.