Price hike won’t deter smokers

SO Brian Cowen gave in to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and their fanatical anti-smokers by adding 30 cent to the price of cigarettes.

You would think the carping bodies such as the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) and ASH would be delighted that we are now the most expensive country in Europe for tobacco of any kind, but they are not.

The IHF expressed disappointment and ASH added that the move flew in the face of Government strategy on a “tobacco-free society”.

Of course, as long as even one person exercises their right to smoke, then the “tobacco-free society” will remain, at best, an unlikely aspiration.

As it is, more than a million of us enjoy a smoke and that number is growing according to the sales figures from the industry, possibly as a fashionable act of defiance by young people against the ban. So while the average cost of 20 cigarettes in Europe is e3.44, in Ireland it is now e7.50. But Mr Cowen says this is a health measure. How does he make that out?

Those who wish to quit will try to do so regardless of price, those who wish to start will do so, and the rest of us smokers will continue as before.

Smokers contribute an extra e1.8 billion in taxes each year to the exchequer and the 30 cent is simply an increase in this figure.

It’s ironic that, as well as angering more than one million smokers with this unjust increase, Mr Cowen has also enraged the fanatics.

Perhaps he should have dropped the price by e2 — then at least he would have pleased a silent one million voters who might remember him for his fairness.

John Mallon

Shamrock Grove

Mayfield

Cork