Pack of 20 cigarettes in Ireland now €14
Wednesday, October 14, 2020 at 10:55 As a result of yesterday’s Budget in Ireland a pack of 20 cigarettes now costs €14.
I genuinely don’t know how many medium to heavy smokers, especially those in low paid jobs, can afford to continue smoking but the majority seem to find a way otherwise smoking rates would be falling much faster than they are.
A minority buy cigarettes on the black market, others buy abroad (or they did before the current travel restrictions).
The Irish government admits that the exchequer lost out on an 'estimated 22 percent of the 2.769 billion cigarettes consumed in Ireland every year – 13 per cent illicit consumption and 9 per cent imported'.
But, the argument goes, this is not about money. It’s about public health and increasing the cost of tobacco will drive down smoking rates.
The issue though is one of coercion. Instead of being allowed to weigh up the health risks of smoking for themselves, and balance that against the pleasure or comfort it brings, many consumers are being forced to quit, often against their will.
Here in the UK I know one smoker who told me he will soon be forced to give up smoking (a habit he has enjoyed for decades) because he simply can’t afford to buy tobacco at UK prices, which are very similar to those in Ireland.
Before the pandemic he bought all his tobacco on trips abroad but that isn’t an option at the moment.
Which brings me to other law-abiding smokers, including those who can’t travel to countries where the cost of tobacco is significantly cheaper than at home.
They are clearly being discriminated against in the same way that the vulnerable and infirm are discriminated against when smoking is banned on hospital grounds and smokers are forced off site.
When it comes to smokers, however, acts of discrimination are not only ignored, they are positively encouraged.
And here’s where the hypocrisy of the anti-smoking lobby comes into play.
Smokers, they say, are addicts and therefore victims of an evil tobacco industry.
I’ve never succumbed to that view. I accept that many smokers are addicted in the sense that smoking is for some long-term smokers a difficult habit to break, but it’s far from impossible - millions have done it, many without fuss.
If, however, you accept the public health view of smoking (ie a terrible addiction that only the state can ‘cure’), why would you support a tax policy that risks impoverishing millions of people?
After all, if smoking is as addictive as you claim, why would punitive taxation make a difference?
All you are doing is forcing more ‘addicts’ into poverty because, according to you, their addiction means they have lost control over their own lives, and money.
Anyway, Forest’s spokesman in Ireland, John Mallon, has been busy these past few days and his pre and post Budget quotes have been reported online and in print by several papers including The Times (Ireland edition), Irish Sun, Irish Mirror and Irish Examiner.
He’s also been quoted online by the Journal.ie, Dublin Live and Newstalk.
Yesterday evening his response to the increase in tobacco duty was also included in news bulletins on local radio across the country.
Reader Comments (4)
Extreme and punative tobacco taxes should be reduced. Smoking bans need to relaxed. The persecution of smokers must end.
Anti-smokers hate smoke/smoking/smokers. Well, actually, there's one thing anti-smokers just LOVE about smokers - their money. The grunting hogs (government, Public Health) at the trough can't get enough of smokers' moolah. Smokers are simply being robbed by ever-increasing amounts by government crooks.
I said Ireland would raise taxes on smokers to help pay for Covid.
It is not about health, or addiction, but greedy government and it's pocket quangos who are just like bullies in the playground holding smokers upside down until all their money falls out of their pockets.
They are also thieves, stealing money from the poor and vulnerable because they can.
Every smoker now has a duty to fight back and stop funding the bullies. Buy black market or abroad but do not buy from the State tobacco cartel that used to be called Government.
Smokers continue to be cynically exploited by the Unholy Trinity of greedy government, sanctimonious prohibitionists, and organised crime. Personal tobacco imports into Australia are seized and forfeit to the omniscient Crown with no option to pay the astronomical punitive duties, over $1500/kg ex GST, forcing smokers to debased, defaced government approved "plain packaging" (no, not plain, a vehicle for prohibitionist propaganda). Retail prices are at least as punitive as Ireland and the UK with taxes at $1.21 per single cigarette (or "stick" as quaintly described by prohibitionists), about 91% of the cost. Get these bullies out of our lives and pockets.