Consumer group calls for reduction in tobacco tax

A smokers' lobby group has called for a reduction of €1 on a packet of 20 cigarettes to counteract the sale of illicit tobacco and protect "the weakest in society" including children, the elderly and the unemployed.

In a pre-Budget letter to Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, the group said: "Tobacco duty in Ireland is already at record levels and it is no coincidence that the country has been described as a tobacco smuggling blackspot. Any reasonable assessment of the impact of increasing tobacco tax above and beyond the existing level must conclude that a further increase will benefit only the smugglers, some of whom have been reported to use children as young as 12 to sell illicit cigarettes door-to-door, and as young as seven at open air markets.