CRIMINAL GANGS are using young people to sell smuggled tobacco door-to-door in housing estates around the State, an Oireachtas committee has heard.
Benny Gilsenan, a shopkeeper in Dublin’s north inner city, said 12-14 year olds were being used to offload illegal cigarettes by criminals anxious to avoid detection by gardaí.
Mr Gilsenan, a spokesman for Retailers Against Smuggling, told the justice committee the problem was rampant in many parts of Dublin and in markets around the country. Leaflets were also being dropped into homes with a mobile number for ordering deliveries of black-market cigarettes.
Anti-smoking groups told the committee the Government needs to develop a national anti-smuggling strategy to combat an “epidemic” in the importation and sale of illegal cigarettes.
The availability of cheap black-market cigarettes has helped push up smoking rates and is allowing criminal gangs to dictate Irish health policy, representatives of the Irish Heart Foundation, the Irish Cancer Society and Ash Ireland said.
The three organisations jointly called for increased penalties, more resources for detecting contraband and on-the-spot fines to stamp out tobacco smuggling.
About 25 per cent of cigarettes sold here are illegal. This costs the exchequer almost €400 million in lost taxes and duty.
The flood of illegal cigarettes coming into Ireland will have significant health implications for the population and is likely to add to the 7,000 annual deaths already attributed to smoking, they told the justice committee.
About 200 million illegal cigarettes were seized by the Customs Service last year, compared to 135 million in 2008, 74 million in 2007 and 52 million in 2006. In one incident alone, 120 million cigarettes were seized in Greenore Port in Co Louth last October.
Chris Macey, head of advocacy with the Irish Heart Foundation, told the committee that smugglers regarded Ireland as a soft touch. “If their activities are allowed to prevent action to reduce tobacco consumption such as through tax hikes, we are effectively allowing them to dictate our health policy.”
Mr Macey said that between June 2006 and June 2009, fines of €160,000 were imposed on 340 people for tobacco smuggling offences, with nine sent to jail.
The heart foundation said smuggling had nothing to do with high taxes on tobacco and claimed cigarette companies were profiting from the illegal activity.
The Finance Bill, published by the Government earlier this month, allows for tougher punishments for those caught bringing contraband into the country.