Anti-smoking campaigners have called on the Government to impose a £1 increase in the price of a packet of cigarettes in the next Budget and to remove tobacco from the basket of goods used to calculate the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Dr Fenton Howell, of ASH (Action on Smoking and Health), said significant price rises were one of the best deterrents for smokers.
He said the Government was slow to impose a major increase because of its impact on inflation, but if tobacco was omitted from the CPI, then the price rise would not affect inflation. The CPI is the official reading of inflation.
Dr Howell said he had never met anyone outside the tobacco industry who argued that tobacco should be part of the Consumer Price Index.
Meanwhile Dr Luke Clancy, a consultant respiratory physician, said countries such as Finland had seen a major drop in smoking rates after imposing hefty price increases on cigarettes.
"A 1 per cent increase in price will lead to a half per cent drop in smoking," Dr Clancy said. "But it has got to be above the cost of living." He attributed the drop in smoking rates in this State in the 1970s and 1980s to the poor economic climate and the increasing price of cigarettes.
Last year ASH called for a £1 increase in the price of a packet of 20 cigarettes. The Government imposed a 50p price rise with a commitment to allocate the extra revenue to anti-smoking measures. ASH has advocated that arrangements for this measure be put in place immediately and that the Government impose a £1 increase on a packet in this year's Budget.
A spokeswoman for the Central Statistics Office, which compiles the Consumer Price Index, said tobacco had to be included in the basket of goods in order to provide an accurate reading of inflation here.
She said the price index could be supplied without tobacco for information purposes, but as a calculation of the level of inflation, tobacco would have to be included.
Dr Howell said if the Government wanted to "health-proof" Department of Finance policies, then this was an obvious step to take.
He said this would have a positive effect on the economy because it would reduce the amount of money spent by the health sector to counter the ill-health caused by smoking.
