Deadline on tobacco firm’s legal bid goes up in smoke

The tobacco firm which threatened the State with a multimillion-euro legal action unless it scrapped plans for plain cigarette packets by Friday had yet to contact the Government over its refusal to bow to lobbying pressure last night.

Neither the Department of Health nor the Department of Children had been sent any letter or legal writ at the time of going to press, after Health wrote back to the firm to say the policy will be implemented.

The ministers for the departments, Leo Varadkar and James Reilly, received legal letters from Arthur Cox solicitors on behalf of Silk Cut and Benson & Hedges makers JTI Ireland in recent days insisting the proposed policy must be binned by Friday.