Tobacco taxes play into the smugglers’ hands

THE recent announcement by the Director of Public Prosecutions, James Hamilton, that one in four cigarettes in Ireland is the result of illegal smuggling is hardly surprising.

When a packet here costs in excess of e8, whereas the same product can be bought in other EU countries for e1.30, you can understand why one-third of the population are voting with their feet.

The DPP bemoans a loss of e500 million a year to the Revenue Commissioners, but this is at odds with the Government’s policy of a “tobacco-free society”.