Non-nationals paying €2.30 less per packet

Eastern and Central Europeans living here are paying €2.30 less than Irish nationals for a packet of cigarettes.

And 25% of an estimated 134,000 people who smoked illegal cigarettes were originally from Eastern European countries.

This group was more likely to use counterfeit brands, import what they need from abroad or get friends to bring large amounts back from holiday.

These were among the findings of a survey carried out for the Revenue Commissioners into the extent of the illegal trade and the source of €435m in taxes lost because of counterfeit, contraband, and imported cigarettes.

The results said in 2010 Polish, Central, and Eastern Europeans in this country paid an average of €5.43 per packet compared with €7.79 for Irish people.

While they smoked two fewer cigarettes every day, 46% of the Europeans had illegal packets compared with 11% of Irish smokers.

The price difference had narrowed by €1 per packet from the results of the same set of interviews two years earlier. This was because the European smokers reported to buying less of their cigarettes as part of big bulk purchases in 2010.

The results were contained in annual surveys conducted by Ipsos MRBI and were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The figures showed a marked difference in the likelihood of certain categories of smokers to possess illegal brands. When they were approached by researchers, only 32% of Eastern and Central Europeans respondents had bought their packet of cigarettes in a shop compared with 82% of Irish people.

More than one third of smokers from Poland paid less than €4.50 per packet compared to 7% of Irish people who spent less than this.

The Revenue Commissioners split those who responded into two categories — Old Europe and New Europe. Old Europe covered Ireland and other pre-EU expansion European countries.

New Europe was made up of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungry, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

The most recent of three annual surveys showed those in the Old Europe category on average, smoked one cigarette more every day but were more likely to have bought a legal brand.

“Looking at the European grouping, 11% of Old European smokers had an illegal pack, in contrast the figure was considerably higher — 46% — for New European smokers,” it said.

The survey also found the popularity of contraband packets was higher among residents of the expansion countries: “11% of packs were classified as being contraband, 9% of Old Europe smokers’ packs and 39% of New Europe smokers’ packs were found to be contraband.”

Of the Eastern Europeans, more 20% of these smokers got their cigarettes from friends who brought back packets from trips abroad. Almost 25% brought the packets back themselves while abroad and 15% bought them directly from a friend.