Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 6 Oct 2026

Vol. 1092 No. 1

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  • Díospóireachtaí Coiste
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  • Vótálacha na Dála
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  • Ceisteanna scríofa
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• Nuair a bhíonn tionchar tromchúiseach ag aithrisí

Financial Resolution No. 4: Excise – Tobacco Products Tax

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Deputy James Lawless)

I move:

(1) THAT for the purposes of the tax charged by virtue of section 72 of the Finance Act 2005 (No. 5 of 2005), that Act be amended, with effect as on and from 7 October 2026, by substituting the following for Schedule 2 to that Act (as amended by section 56 of the Finance Act 2025 (No. 18 of 2025)):

SCHEDULE 2

Rates of Tobacco Products Tax

(With effect as on and from 7 October 2026)

Description of Product	Rate of Tax
Cigarettes …. .... .... …. …. …. …. ….	Rate of tax at— (a) except where paragraph (b) applies, €520.88 per thousand together with an amount equal to 8.67 per cent of the price at which the cigarettes are sold by retail, or (b) €570.73 per thousand in respect of cigarettes sold by retail where the rate of tax would be less than that rate had the rate been calculated in accordance with paragraph (a).
Cigars .... .... .... …. …. …. …. ….	Rate of tax at €580.447 per kilogram.
Fine-cut tobacco for the rolling of cigarettes ....	Rate of tax at €558.422 per kilogram.
Other smoking tobacco .... …. …. …. ….	Rate of tax at €402.688 per kilogram.

".

(2) IT is hereby declared that it is expedient in the public interest that this Resolution shall have statutory effect under the provisions of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 1927 (No. 7 of 1927).

Financial Resolution No. 4 provides for excise duty increases on tobacco products with effect from midnight tonight. The increase amounts to €1, VAT inclusive, on a pack of 20 cigarettes in the most popular price category together with pro rata increases for other tobacco products. The price of a pack of 20 cigarettes in the most popular price category, assuming the full increase is passed through to the final retail price, will increase to €20.50. The excise duty component of this price will be €12.20 and the total tax, inclusive of VAT, will be €16.03, which represents approximately 78.20% of the price of a 20 pack of cigarettes. The pro rata increase on the price of a typical pouch of roll-your-own tobacco will increase by €1.37 to €29.72.

Ireland is committed to a policy of high taxation of tobacco in order to influence behaviours, to encourage people to quit smoking and to deter young people from taking it up in the first place. That policy is working, according to the evidence. In 2007, 29% of our people were daily smokers. By contrast, in 2025, that figure has reduced to 17%. Increasing tobacco products taxation is an internationally recognised key public health policy measure, one endorsed by the World Health Organizaition, to continue the downward trend in smoking rates.

The increase in tobacco products tax is estimated to yield approximately €63.1 million in a full year and an additional €5.1 million in the current year. I therefore move this resolution, which I see as a key part of the Government's policy to encourage people to give up smoking and to encourage younger people not to take it up in the first place.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I am against this increase. I have, over the years, constantly been against increasing the tax on tobacco. In the first instance, there are many elderly people who have different problems and are addicted to cigarettes. Even though the Minister might say that increasing the cost by €1 will prevent them from smoking, I do not think it will. They will have to endure more hardship. The only comfort that many of these people have is their cigarette. If people buy five packets in a week, that would not be an awful lot. That will now cost in excess of €100.

I have other problems with increasing the costs which relate to young people. They will be trying other things. Perhaps they will be trying drugs. Perhaps they will be looking for vape products when we do not know what in God's world is inside them. I am concerned about such considerations. People will always do something and think of something. I am worried.

I do not like cigarettes and never smoked. I smoked a cigarette once, did not like it and never smoked again. However, I have outlined my reasons. People say to me that the only comfort they have is the cigarette. I do not think the Government is going to change those people's styles or habits by increasing the cost by €1. They will just have to endure more financial hardship as a result of the increase. The cost is currently €19.50, as the Minister said, for the more popular brands. This increase will push the cost over €20. Those on 20 cigarettes per day or less, including those who would smoke only five packs a week, will now pay €100 or more per week. That would be a big part of their social welfare or pension payment. There is a hard core of people still smoking.

I will again reiterate my other concern. Younger people will be tempted to try something else, such as vapes or drugs. We know what the drugs lead to. For those reasons, I am opposing this resolution.

Deputy Thomas Gould

There was a time when increasing the price of tobacco was an effective public health measure. We all understood and agree with that. However, we must be honest about where we are now. This strategy now has diminishing returns in relation to people not smoking or giving up smoking. The reality is that it is just pushing the prices up and up again. As a strategy on its own, that is not enough. We need education and prevention. We have to stop people from smoking in the first place. That is the major key. Tobacco is an addictive substance that captures people for their whole lives.

When we are talking about putting up the price, we are also talking about illicit markets and criminality coming in. The figures we have suggest that over €1.1 billion worth of unregulated cigarettes were consumed in Ireland last year, with an estimated loss to the Revenue of €810 million, which is up €76 million on the previous year.

No one is arguing that smoking is not harmful. We know that it is. However, just putting up the price is not a strategy on its own. Perhaps it was at one stage but it is not now. We want fewer people to smoke. That is why I believe education is the way to go. For people, especially older people, who might not drink but for whom a cup of tea and a cigarette might be their only comfort as they watch the telly or sit out in front of their houses, this will hurt. At the end of the day, people are adults and make those choices. The Government is driving people to the black market. People should be able to live their lives without having to go to that side of things. On its own, putting up the price is not solving the problem. I understand what the Government is trying to do. For years, the tax increase was a major part of the strategy. However, I think we now need to be more nuanced, to work and to come up with better solutions. This is hard for those people who are addicted.

Deputy Duncan Smith

The Minister has been sold a pup with the words he has been given to read tonight. He said that increasing the price of smoking has been a success in terms of diminishing numbers. He mentioned a 2007 start date and the figure now of a 17% smoking rate. However, the tobacco-free Ireland strategy was launched by James Reilly in 2013, when prevalence rates were at 22%. The target was to be at 5% by 2025. The Government's target was to have smoking prevalence at 5% in 2025. The rate is now 17%. It has been an abject failure by the Government's and the HSE's own target for Ireland becoming a tobacco-free State. This has now become a substitute for what should be a robust public health policy. There are 100 deaths per week and 1,000 hospitalisations per week due to smoking. After this budget, it will cost €1 per cigarette. The Government can make the cost €10 per cigarette. If it is not backing up the taxation side with a robust public health approach, it will continue to fail.

This Government must be honest about its failure and acknowledge that the drive towards a tobacco-free Ireland has been an abject failure. We are miles from where we need to be. Too many people are dying. Too many people are being hospitalised. Taxation can be a measure to help, but it is nothing compared with robust public health policy in this area. This Government and the previous two Governments have abandoned a robust approach in favour of this old reliable and an extra €1 in tax. It is not making a difference. Without a public health policy, it is regressive. That is the reality. That is not to mention the fact that nearly €1 billion in revenue is being lost to the black market. Can we be honest about tobacco policy in this country? This is not honest. We need honesty because too many people are getting sick and dying. We are continuing to fail. We can increase the cost by €1, €10 or €100 but it will not solve the problem. We have to get honest, get real and save lives. This measure on its own is not the way to do it.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae

Nobody could argue with the Minister's introduction. The whole idea of the Government's policy is to try to stop everybody from smoking, particularly our young people. That is, of course, 100% correct. However, I have never supported an increase in the cost of tobacco. Alcohol was never more freely available than when alcohol sales were banned during prohibition in America many years ago. If a packet of cigarettes were to cost €100 in Ireland, there would still be a massive supply of cheaper cigarettes coming into the country because the black market would absolutely flourish. You would not have to walk two minutes from this building before you could buy a packet of illegal cigarettes that was smuggled into the country. The Minister and I both know that. We all know that.

Of course, from the point of view of health policy, if we could live in a society where nobody smoked it would be brilliant.

Unfortunately, however, we do not live in an ideal society. There are people for whom nicotine is an addiction. In many cases, money is scarce. People want their cigarettes. It could be a person with a nervous personality. The one bit of comfort they have is their cigarette, and you cannot argue with that. You might love to discourage them and you would try to stop them, but I do not think that just continuously increasing the price - in other words, pricing them out of the market - is a good thing. You will not stop people that way. That is just my belief. I very much support all the public health initiatives out there, including the publicity campaigns, the awareness-raising campaigns and the campaigns by the medical profession. When the Department of Health and the HSE do everything they can in the context of smoke-free zones and trying to educate people about the harmful results of continuous cigarette smoking, that is all good, 100%, but it does not mean that I will just blindly support the taxation. If cigarettes were banned completely tomorrow, the people who want them would still get them.

Deputy Paul Nicholas Gogarty

The campaign to reduce tobacco use has not succeeded in the way people had hoped. In that context, we have to look at the bigger picture and see what other measures are required. It is the same with vaping, as I and others have mentioned. We also have psychoactive synthetic chemicals out there and the question of whether there is some sort of revenue or fiscal element involved or whether they need to be banned. A constituent of mine who played sport at a high level was in hospital for a month with a drug-induced psychosis having bought this stuff legally over the counter. While cigarettes are very dangerous, we have new stuff coming in. That needs to be stopped because it is making people's lives and their families' a living hell.

Specifically on cigarettes, we have to keep increasing the excise. Otherwise, inflation lessens its impact over the years. In light of that, I will not be opposing this resolution. However, it is still the case that the revenue from excise duty on cigarettes is half the cost to our healthcare system regarding people who have fallen ill because of tobacco products. As a result, there is scope, even allowing for the black market risk, for the excise duty to be increased further.

During our Presidency of the EU, we have to push our EU partners in the context of having an age barrier of 21 and moving up, just like what happens in the UK at the moment. We have an age 21 alternative, but as adults come into the system, it should be banned. The EU will need to look at that more closely, and we need to push it in that regard.

In terms of revenue on cigarettes, the bane of my life, as I mentioned to the Taoiseach, is cigarette butts being dropped willy-nilly outside Agriculture House, outside the restaurant here - you name it. Cigarette butt tossers get away with murder. There is a €250 fine involved, but trying to get that fine out of these people is quite difficult in terms of meeting the burden of proof. As for trying to get them to court, you are not allowed to use DNA evidence, for example. We should massively increase the fines for people who drop cigarette butts. That revenue could be put into education in terms of trying to get people off cigarettes and vaping in the first place.

Deputy Barry Heneghan

Aontaím le go leor daoine a bhí ag caint faoi seo. I support the increase in excise duty on tobacco products. I smoked previously. I have seen the increases we see at the moment. We have to be clear, though. A €1 increase is not really acceptable when young men and young women go into petrol stations and see luminous blue double apple Red Bull-flavoured vapes, with clear targeting for children, which increase their likelihood of starting smoking. I ask for the funding raised on foot of this measure to be ring-fenced for a joint HSE, Department of Health and Garda group. It could also tackle the HHC vape epidemic across the country. In north Dublin, I have had parents of 12-year-old children calling me. Those children are inhaling these vapes and frying their brains.

Being honest about what people are smoking, you could walk out the gates to these Houses and nearly get a bag of weed quicker than you could get a bottle of vodka after 10 o'clock at night. Má bhreathnaíonn tú timpeall an domhain, tá an daonracht céanna ag Colorado le hÉire, and in the first year of taxing regulated medical cannabis, Colorado generated money that could be used to clear this country's debt and that could be invested in addiction programmes and things that will help people rather than going into the pockets of drug dealers. We have seen constant promises from the Government that this will be checked. We could regulate medical cannabis for cancer patients, people who need it for anxiety or for the pain relating to cancer treatment. It has been proven that this can then be used to deregulate, which, in turn, can lead to a reduction in addiction to synthetic cannabinoids that are being sprayed on the streets, frying our young people's brains.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett

I was a smoker for many years. I am glad to say I am off them. It is very important that we discourage young people from smoking, but I have to be honest and say I do not think adding a bill of €350 to people who are addicted over the course of the year is really the answer. We often hit older people, those on low incomes and those who are being punished for having an addition. It would be better if they did not have that addiction, but I do not believe in punishing them. There is some connection between price and consumption, but that is not an absolute law by any means. Where are the lowest priced cigarettes in the world? Have a guess. Ghana and Nigeria. Where are the lowest rates of smoking anywhere in the world? Ghana and Nigeria. It is not therefore the case that there is an absolute connection between price and consumption. When I look at young people smoking less - and, actually, it is going down in most European countries, even countries like Greece and so on that have very low prices - it is more to do with them being more educated about the health impacts, a greater interest in and take-up on their part of sport and an understanding of physical health that is growing and that points to the need for more education and more funding for sports. That funding has, by the way, been cut in the budget. There has been an 18% cut to the allocation for the Department of the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan.

Deputy Paul Lawless

I agree with a lot of what the Minister said, but I cannot support this resolution because it punishes people who are addicted to cigarettes. That is what this will do. There may have been a value in increasing this a number of years ago. However, it is at the point now where this is just inflicting more pain and hardship on people. In some cases, these are people who are on the lower margins. They will sacrifice food, heating and other essentials for their cigarettes because they are so addicted. I urge the Government to reconsider this policy going forward and ask that it to put its energy into tackling the proliferation of the vape shops that are popping up everywhere and the synthetic cannabinoids that are destroying young people. Vapes are a gateway to cigarettes, so this is the new issue we need to tackle.

Question put: "That Financial Resolution No. 4 be agreed to."

The Dáil divided: Tá, 110; Níl, 48; Staon, 0.

Tá

• Ahern, Ciarán.
• Aird, William.
• Ardagh, Catherine.
• Bacik, Ivana.
• Boland, Grace.
• Brabazon, Tom.
• Brennan, Brian.
• Brennan, Shay.
• Brophy, Colm.
• Browne, James.
• Burke, Colm.
• Burke, Peter.
• Butler, Mary.
• Butterly, Paula.
• Buttimer, Jerry.
• Byrne, Malcolm.
• Cahill, Michael.
• Callaghan, Catherine.
• Calleary, Dara.
• Canney, Seán.
• Carrigy, Micheál.
• Cleere, Peter 'Chap'.
• Clendennen, John.
• Collins, Niall.
• Connolly, John.
• Cooney, Joe.
• Crowe, Cathal.
• Cummins, John.
• Currie, Emer.
• Daly, Martin.
• Dempsey, Aisling.
• Devlin, Cormac.
• Dillon, Alan.
• Dolan, Albert.
• Dooley, Timmy.
• Ennis, Daniel.
• Farrelly, Aidan.
• Feighan, Frankie.
• Fleming, Sean.
• Foley, Norma.
• Gallagher, Pat the Cope.
• Gannon, Gary.
• Geoghegan, James.
• Gibney, Sinéad.
• Gogarty, Paul Nicholas.
• Grealish, Noel.
• Harkin, Marian.
• Hayes, Eoin.
• Hearne, Rory.
• Heneghan, Barry.
• Heydon, Martin.
• Higgins, Emer.
• Kelly, Alan.
• Kenny, Eoghan.
• Keogh, Keira.
• Kyne, Seán.
• Lahart, John.
• Lawless, James.
• Lawlor, George.
• Lowry, Michael.
• Martin, Micheál.
• Maxwell, David.
• McAuliffe, Paul.
• McCarthy, Noel.
• McConalogue, Charlie.
• McCormack, Tony.
• McEntee, Helen.
• McGrath, Mattie.
• McGrath, Séamus.
• McGreehan, Erin.
• Moran, Kevin Boxer.
• Moynihan, Aindrias.
• Moynihan, Michael.
• Murnane O'Connor, Jennifer.
• Murphy, Michael.
• Nash, Ged.
• Naughton, Hildegarde.
• Neville, Joe.
• O'Brien, Darragh.
• O'Callaghan, Cian.
• O'Callaghan, Jim.
• O'Connell, Maeve.
• O'Connor, James.
• O'Donnell, Kieran.
• O'Donoghue, Robert.
• O'Donovan, Patrick.
• O'Gorman, Roderic.
• O'Meara, Ryan.
• O'Shea, John Paul.
• O'Sullivan, Christopher.
• O'Sullivan, Pádraig.
• Ó Cearúil, Naoise.
• Ó Fearghaíl, Seán.
• Ó Muirí, Naoise.
• Quaide, Liam.
• Rice, Pádraig.
• Richmond, Neale.
• Roche, Peter.
• Scanlon, Eamon.
• Sheehan, Conor.
• Sherlock, Marie.
• Smith, Brendan.
• Smith, Duncan.
• Smyth, Niamh.
• Timmins, Edward.
• Toole, Gillian.
• Troy, Robert.
• Wall, Mark.
• Ward, Barry.
• Whitmore, Jennifer.

Níl

• Bennett, Cathy.
• Boyd Barrett, Richard.
• Brady, John.
• Buckley, Pat.
• Byrne, Joanna.
• Carthy, Matt.
• Clarke, Sorca.
• Collins, Michael.
• Conway-Walsh, Rose.
• Coppinger, Ruth.
• Cronin, Réada.
• Crowe, Seán.
• Cullinane, David.
• Daly, Pa.
• Devine, Máire.
• Donnelly, Paul.
• Ellis, Dessie.
• Fitzmaurice, Michael.
• Gould, Thomas.
• Graves, Ann.
• Guirke, Johnny.
• Healy-Rae, Danny.
• Healy-Rae, Michael.
• Healy, Seamus.
• Kenny, Martin.
• Kerrane, Claire.
• Lawless, Paul.
• Mac Lochlainn, Pádraig.
• McGettigan, Donna.
• Murphy, Paul.
• Mythen, Johnny.
• Newsome Drennan, Natasha.
• Ní Raghallaigh, Shónagh.
• Nolan, Carol.
• O'Donoghue, Richard.
• O'Flynn, Ken.
• O'Hara, Louis.
• O'Reilly, Louise.
• O'Rourke, Darren.
• Ó Broin, Eoin.
• Ó Laoghaire, Donnchadh.
• Ó Murchú, Ruairí.
• Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
• Ó Súilleabháin, Fionntán.
• Quinlivan, Maurice.
• Stanley, Brian.
• Ward, Charles.
• Ward, Mark.

Staon

Tellers: Tá, Deputies Mary Butler and Emer Currie; Níl, Deputies Michael Collins and Ken O'Flynn.

Question declared carried.

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