Madam, – The announcement by the Director of Public Prosecutions, James Hamilton, that one in four cigarettes in Ireland is either counterfeit or the result of illegal smuggling is hardly surprising.
A packet which costs more than €8 here can be bought for €1.30 in other EU countries, so you can understand why so many of the smoking population vote with their feet.
The DPP bemoans a loss of half-a-billion euro a year to the Revenue Commissioners, but this is at odds with the Government policy of a “tobacco-free society”. Surely he should be striving for zero revenue from smoking.
Just as it is not a criminal offence to cross the Border for the weekly shopping, it is not illegal to take a cheap flight to another EU country, buy six months’ supply in a shop (keeping the receipt for customs inspection), and then enjoy your day sightseeing. It might deny the Irish tax man some hundreds of euro, but it’s legal and it makes sense.
It was mad enough to tax cigarettes so heavily in Ireland that we are now the most expensive country in Europe in which to buy them, but the call for a further 25 per cent increase (to €10 a pack) is lunacy. The law of diminishing returns suggests the tax take will further decrease next year as more and more smokers find ways to source their products in bulk at a vastly lower price.
Since the smoking ban, the number of smokers is on the increase. This is a natural result of driving the habit underground. But this does not take into account the thousands of people who are either buying abroad or “off the back of a lorry”.
I suggest that, if the Government wishes to collect more tobacco taxes, it should lower the price here by 25 per cent and then, perhaps, smokers might return to the traditional outlets. – Yours, etc,