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Buying a box of cigarettes in Ireland could eventually cost €30
Published 16:37 5 Feb 2017 GMT
Homenews
This would be a game-changer.
Saturday marked World Cancer Day and the Irish Cancer Society is asking the government to make a huge increase in the cost of cigarettes in Ireland. The ICS say one-in-four cancer deaths are caused by smoking tobacco and they want to help reduce that figure by following the example set by Australia. The Australian government has committed to raising the price of cigarettes to €28.47 (AUS$40) per box by 2020, you can get a box in Sydney or Melbourne today for €17.60 (AUS$25) per box. The Irish government has a policy on smoking called 'Tobacco Free Ireland' which aims to make Ireland tobacco-free by 2025. According to Newstalk, the Head of Services and Advocacy with the Irish Cancer Society Donal Buggy had this to say on the matter."We need to send a strong signal that the Government is serious about reaching its target of a Tobacco Free Ireland by 2025. To do this we need to follow the example of Australia, where significant spikes in excise duty, next to policies such as plain packaging, have seen a dramatic fall in the smoking rate to 12.8% by the middle of 2016. In Ireland, the smoking rate is just under 20%".A box of cigarettes in Ireland currently costs around €11 so raising it to close to €30 would be a massive jump. It will be interesting to see how the story develops.
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