Joe Cooney (Clare, Fine Gael)
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797. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 215 of 19 February 2025, to provide details of the retail impact assessment and SME test carried out as part of her Department’s consideration of the measures being introduced via the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Act 2023; to provide the research undertaken showing how a reduction in the number of retail outlets selling tobacco products will eliminate the illicit trade in tobacco products; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15635/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The provisions in the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Act 2023 were first proposed and consulted on in 2014 and 2015. The General Scheme of the Bill and accompanying Regulatory Impact Analysis were published in 2019. The General Scheme of the Bill was subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by the Joint Oireachtas Health Committee in 2021 and 2022, and as a result several additional provisions relating to nicotine inhaling products were included in the final Bill. The Bill passed all stages in the Oireachtas and was enacted in December 2023.

Further to my response in Parliamentary Question No. 215 of 19 February 2025, the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products is an international treaty with the objective of eliminating all forms of illicit trade in tobacco products through a package of measures to be taken by countries acting in cooperation with each other. This includes adequate control measures for the entire supply chain, including retailer licensing systems. Ireland signed the Protocol in 2013, and it is now anticipated that Ireland will be in a position to ratify the Protocol. Efforts to combat illicit trade of tobacco are primarily a matter for the Office of the Revenue Commissioners.