Cigarettes should be increased by €2 for 20

GIVEN the devastation that tobacco use inflicts on the health of those who smoke, the call by the Irish Medical Organisation for the minister for finance, to increase the excise duty on 20 cigarettes by €2 in the forthcoming budget is very welcome.

Hopefully, the minister will continue to follow the policy he adopted when he was minister for health.

In 1999, aware of the devastating effects of tobacco on Irish citizens, he lobbied the then minister for finance to increase the packet of 20 cigarettes by £1 and succeeded in getting a 50p increase.