Almost half of shop retailers and over 60 per cent of licensed premises are willing to sell cigarettes to minors, according to new research.
A survey conducted for the Office of Tobacco Control (OTC), published today, found 48 per cent of shop retailers and 64 per cent of licensed premises in the State are willing to sell tobacco to minors.
Only 47 per cent of shops and 30 per cent of licensed premises asked the children for identification. However, of those that did, 91 per cent of minors who were asked for ID were refused the sale, the survey found.
The research found higher compliance from premises with token-operated cigarette vending machines where 54 per cent prevented children from buying cigarettes against 32 per cent of premises with coin-operated machines.
The report, Tobacco Control and the Irish Retail Environment, was commissioned with the aim of measuring the implementation of the law on sales to minors, the extent of tobacco advertising and public attitudes towards tobacco advertising.
The report was launched in the Royal College of Physicians by Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney.
Some 92 per cent of retail outlets visited had some form of tobacco advertising on display, while 45 per cent had confectionery displayed beside the tobacco display.
Eight out of ten people surveyed believed establishments that sell cigarettes should be licensed, while 78 per cent of survey respondents, including 80 per cent of smokers, support a ban on all tobacco advertising.
Ms Harney said she intended to announce a date shortly for the introduction of the Public Health (Tobacco) Acts 2002 and 2004, which will limit the display and advertising of tobacco products in shops. "[Tobacco] is placed among a whole range of familiar products in these shops creating the impression that tobacco is much more socially acceptable and commonly used than is really the case," she said.
The Irish Cancer Society called for more progressive tobacco control measures and policing to protect vulnerable adolescents. The ICS said that while there was a decline in the numbers of people smoking after the workplace ban was introduced in 2004, the decline has now been reversed, particularly among young women.
The society said a quarter of all women smoke. It said just under a fifth of all 15 to 18-year-olds and a third of those in the 19 to 35 age group also smoke.