Some 14 per cent of retailers in Cavan and Monaghan are illegally selling cigarettes to minors, a new study has found.
The study, carried out by the North Eastern Health Board, found the cigarettes were being sold to children as young as 11.
According to the environmental health officer for Cavan, Mr Barry Coady, the children looked unmistakeably their age.
Together with the environmental health officer for Monaghan, Mr Richard Willis, he took three children aged 11 to 13 to 100 tobacco retailers in both counties during the summer months. They were sold cigarettes without question in 14 of the stores.
Mr Coady said the survey followed a previous study conducted among the same retailers a year earlier, when 25 per cent of retailers were found to be breaking the law. It is illegal to sell cigarettes to under-18s.
He said although the situation had improved, seven of the shops which sold cigarettes to minors in the latest study were repeat offenders.
Five have been successfully prosecuted, with fines ranging from €200 to €600 being imposed.
Two further prosecutions are due to be heard before Cavan District Court this Thursday.
"In my eyes, even one premises selling cigarettes to a child is one too many," he said.
Mr Coady stressed environmental health officers would continue to monitor tobacco retailers. He urged parents whose children were smoking to contact the health board in confidence with the names of the shops which sold them cigarettes and the matter would be investigated.
He also called for more resources to be made available to ensure a proactive approach to stamping out the illegal sale of tobacco to minors was developed across the country.