Budget Blog: Minister, why did you only put 10c on the packet of cigarettes?

Here at the Irish Cancer Society we are stunned and very disappointed at the decision of the Government to only put ten cent on a packet of cigarettes in this budget, particularly when the public was expecting more.

Ten cent is the lowest possible increase, really a nominal increase. It will have no impact whatsoever on smoking rates, even though international research shows us that a sharp increase in the price of cigarettes does result in a drop in smoking and in particular discourages young people from starting.

In fact what it will probably do is encourage the tobacco industry to hide its own price increase behind it. The smoker may not notice how ten cent becomes 20 cent and may not know that half of that is going back to tobacco, not the exchequer.

Every year €2bn from the health budget is spent dealing with the health effects of smoking. Sixteen people die every day. Lung cancer, the vast majority of it preventable, is the biggest cancer killer. More women are now dying of lung cancer than breast cancer.

And the Government does not use one of the most effective weapons available, price, to discourage smoking. Why?

We don’t know why. We certainly hope that the Government is not listening to the spurious and downright misleading arguments and figures being peddled by the industry and its mouthpieces.

Like the one about how high price is resulting in smuggling. As we pointed out in our pre-budget meetings, cigarette smuggling is a criminal issue and if the industry is so concerned about it, why is it consistently putting up price itself?

The industry is having it both ways, and the Government is letting it. That’s why we are so deeply disappointed: that the Government is either unwilling or unable to see that the tobacco industry is manipulating it with spurious arguments and misleading figures to persuade it to keep tax increases low while the industry profits go up.

Meanwhile, today, tomorrow and every day, sixteen people will die – unnecessarily – as a result of smoking.

What a disappointing day.

Kathleen O'Meara
Head of Advocacy and Communications
Irish Cancer Society