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.

One suspects he will have the support of the Tánaiste and current Minister for Health, Mary Harney, on this issue.

In the past, the Tánaiste has strongly supported such measures as exemplified by her Dáil speech following the 2002 budget when she said that government should make no apology for imposing a significant increase in tobacco taxation as the evidence showed that demand for tobacco products was not inelastic and that increasing taxation helped to reduce consumption.

With two such stalwarts showing track records in favour of significant tobacco price increases as a means of bettering public health, anything less than a €2 increase in the price of a packet of 20 cigarettes will be a major disappointment and a considerable setback in any attempt to improve the health status of the population and minimise their dependence on an already overstretched health service.

Dr Fenton Howell

St Mary's Villas

Drogheda

Co Louth