Stub it out: charity campaigners make pre-budget submission
THE IRISH Cancer Society and Irish Heart Foundation came together yesterday to urge the Government to increase tax on tobacco by 50 cent in the budget.
Increasing tax by this amount on loose tobacco and cigarettes would generate €85 million in much-needed revenue for the State, they said, while at the same time higher prices would help encourage existing smokers to quit and discourage young people from experimenting with tobacco. The charities want to see €12 million of the money raised in tax to be ring-fenced for smoking cessation programmes.
Kathleen O’Meara, head of advocacy and communications at the Irish Cancer Society, said our health services spend €2 billion each year treating tobacco-related illness. “So if we reduce prevalence we don’t just save lives, we also reduce the massive cost of treating the harmful effects of smoking addiction,” she said.
In their pre-budget submission, the charities also called for a comprehensive package of measures to tackle tobacco smuggling, which could potentially save the exchequer about €67 million each year.
Based on 2009 receipts, the Department of Finance estimates the exchequer loses €200 million in duty each year due to the illicit trade in tobacco.
Chris Macey, head of advocacy at the Irish Heart Foundation, said a three-pronged approach is required to tackle smoking prevalence, including price increases for tobacco products, comprehensive smoking cessation programmes and stronger smuggling controls.
“If we don’t tackle smoking rates by helping people to quit, we are in grave danger of seeing the benefits of the very progressive anti-tobacco legislation we have introduced seriously undermined, with addiction and inevitably deaths from tobacco, increasing,” he said.
Irish smoking rates remain stubbornly high, at 29 per cent, and 16 people die every day in Ireland from the effects of smoking.