In the article “City’s illicit cigarette trade costs local jobs’’ (Irish Examiner, July 30), Joe Sweeney of the National Federation of Retail Newsagents described the proposed plain packaging of tobacco products as “just a feel-good gimmick that will drive up the illegal trade”.

A nationwide survey has found a rise in illicit cigarettes in Cork City in the past 12 months — a trend newsagents claim is costing jobs.

The National Federation of Retail Newsagents in Ireland is warning the Government to tackle the sale of illegal cigarettes.

Tobacco manufacturers and retailers have warned that new EU anti-smoking legislation will boost the illegal tobacco market and cost the State tens of millions of euro.

Cigarette vending machines could soon be a thing of the past in the UK after MPs agreed to ban them.

The maker of Marlboro cigarettes today mounted a legal challenge to overturn the country’s ban on advertising tobacco products in shops.

The Irish Cancer Society and the Irish Heart Foundation have joined forces to seek a €2 increase in the price of cigarettes in the forthcoming emergency budget.

IF THE Green Party doesn’t deliver on its environmental policies while in government, its pious words voiced in the powerlessness of opposition will surely come back to haunt it.