Tobacco revenue Price hike will save more lives

THE huge increase in tobacco revenue to the Exchequer gives the lie to the success of the Government’s anti-smoking policies, which have been acclaimed and imitated internationally.

In the aftermath of then Health Minister Micheál Martin’s 2003 ban on smoking in the workplace, tax returns from tobacco revenue fell by €128 million in 2004. Since then, however, the enormously successful policy has lost momentum.

This is despite widespread public backing for the law, even among smokers, because it was firmly grounded on health reasons.