Ireland this week regained its place as the most expensive country in Europe in which to buy tobacco.
The country with which it competes for the title is of course the UK.
Budget 2020 was delivered in Dublin by finance minister Paschal Donohoe and although most of the attention was on financial measures that might ease the impact of a no deal Brexit, the 50c increase in the price of cigarettes - and a pro rata increase on other tobacco products - didn’t go unnoticed.
A pack of 20 cigarettes in the most popular price bracket now stands at €13.50 (£12), with tax accounting for about 80 per cent of that.
Forest’s John Mallon was in Dublin to give our response and his comments were broadcast or reported by a wide range of media including Newstalk, The Journal, Irish Sun, Irish Independent, Irish Post and many more.
It’s a bit of a hassle but I’m told that, if you are a smoker resident in Ireland, you can catch a cheap Ryanair flight to a UK airport at a cost of, say, €25 (round trip), buy 200 cigarettes duty free at your destination, and return the same day to Ireland where you can buy a further 200 cigs duty free before leaving the airport.
Following this week’s Budget 400 cigarettes would cost approximately €270 if bought from a legitimate retailer in Ireland. I’m not sure what the current duty free prices are, but as a general rule they tend to be less than half price at the airport.
It doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that, even if you add the cost of a cheap flight, the saving is substantial. Travel outside the EU (as, God willing, the UK will be in a few weeks) and there is no restriction on the number of cigarettes you can buy duty free for your own personal use, although questions may be asked if it’s more than 800.
That, at least, is my understanding of the situation (I’m no expert - check first!) so if the UK finally leaves the EU smokers resident in Ireland would be mad not to take advantage.
After all, apart from the inconvenience, why would you pay full price for tobacco in your local store when you can save so much money only a hop, skip and jump across the Irish Sea?
As John Mallon told reporters on Tuesday, “This could be a massive own goal.”