Sir, – The unquestionable success of the smoking ban in Ireland has to be credited to the foresight of Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who introduced the ban when he was minister for health in 2004, and also to the continuous increase in excise duty on cigarettes in every budget since the ban was introduced.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP), a part of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018. The positive effect of MUP is being dissipated by the failure of successive governments to increase excise duty on alcohol in every budget since then. Although only commenced in 2022, the rate for MUP was set in 2013 with legislation providing that the minister for health could increase it in 2025 but that never happened. Both of those measures, smoking ban and MUP, will save lives and it is difficult to understand why one of them, the smoking ban, receives the full attention of our Government while the other, MUP, is left to soon disappear into oblivion. – Yours, etc,
JOHN HIGGINS,
Ballina,
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Co Mayo.
