Cigarette sales back on the rise despite ban

IRISH people are buying more cigarettes, despite the country having the toughest anti-smoking measures in Europe, it emerged yesterday.

The scientific journal Tobacco Control yesterday suggested Ireland was the best of 30 European countries at discouraging tobacco use. The smoking ban was singled out for praise.

But, according to the latest edition of the Retail News grocery magazine, sales of cigarettes last year rose by 1.8% to €1.8 billion after a 11.3% slump in 2004 when the ban came in.

Anti-smoking campaign group ASH Ireland pinpointed the blame for the sales rise on the Government’s failure to increase tax on cigarettes in the last two budgets.

ASH chairman Professor Luke Clancy said: “The biggest deterrent is price but the Minister for Finance has refused to put up the price of cigarettes for two years running.

“There was a big fall-off in sales after the smoking ban but cigarettes have been cheaper for the last two years and that is what drives the market.”

An estimated 950,000 adults in the Republic smoke packet cigarettes and pay about €6.20 for 20, compared to around £5 (€7.40) in the North and in Britain.

Prof. Clancy said: “Ireland used to have prices relative to the North and Britain but now cigarettes are over €1 cheaper here — that encourages people to buy from outside the jurisdiction, too.”

Among the cigarette makers reporting a sales rise was the Imperial Tobacco Group, which sells brands like John Player and Superkings.

Imperial said sales in the six months to March 2006 rose by 4% on the same period last year to stand at 2.8 billion cigarettes.

Imperial spokesman Alex Parsons credited the hospitality sector for the recovery in sales after the effects of the smoking ban.

He told Retail News: “There was an initial decline after the ban but that diminishes over time.

“A diminishing decline is largely due to the hospitality sector managing the implications of the ban and increasing their efforts to accommodate smokers.”

Cigarette maker Gallagher Ireland said the smoking ban initially led to a 30% fall-off in sales in licensed premises and from vending machines.

But sales improved by 25% in shops, Gallagher sales and marketing boss Paul Williams told the magazine.

Anti-smoking campaigners want the Government to introduce tougher measures to curb sales of cigarettes and stop people smoking.

Prof Clancy said: “The Government failed to tackle the price issue and there are indications this contributed to the recent upturn in the number of young people commencing to smoke and a fall-off in the number of people quitting.

“We must develop regulations which will stop the proliferation of smoking rooms attached to or part of some pubs. It would be disastrous if we allowed a resurgence of the ‘old ways’, with inevitable negative consequences for the health of all our citizens.”