We’re Europe’s softest touch for cigarette smugglers

IN your report headlined ‘Cigarette smuggling costs state €556m’ (April 15), the Minister for Finance is incorrect when he states our tobacco smuggling epidemic is the product of high tobacco taxes.

The truth is we are the softest touch in western Europe for the smuggling networks. Our capacity to put in place effective vigilance is weak and the penalties imposed on those convicted of smuggling are light in the extreme. Indeed, in 2009 the fines imposed for both the smuggling and selling of illegal cigarettes totalled just over €80,000. A total of 140 people were fined for cigarette smuggling, which amounted to €67,130 in fines imposed — an average fine of just €479.50. In a single recent case in the North, a fine of £729,000 (€807,000) was handed down.

Incidentally, a recent ESRI study showed it takes the average worker in the North 90 minutes to earn the price of a packet of 20 cigarettes, compared to an hour in the Republic. So, in real terms, cigarettes cost more up there, but it is the Republic that is being targeted by the smuggling gangs.