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A GROUP OF retailers has written to TDs over the proposed rise in the tobacco license fee.
The National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN), which has 500 members, believes that retailers are an “easy target” for Government and that the fee might cause legitimate retailers to leave the market.
NFRN Ireland has now written to all TDs asking them to oppose plans for the tobacco licence fee to be increased to €500.
In June 2014, the then Minister for Health, James Reilly TD, obtained Cabinet approval to pursue plans to introduce the higher tobacco license fee, estimated to be €500, with the variance in the cost between supermarkets and independents to be determined.
NFRN Ireland said it is “vehemently opposed to the measure” as “once again legitimate retailers are a soft target for Government whilst criminals profit greatly from the illicit tobacco trade”.
Selling tobacco
NFRN Ireland’s Public Affairs Manager Deirdre Drennan said that some retailers will decide the profit they are making from tobacco products does not justify the fee, and will choose to no longer sell tobacco.
“As legitimate retailers leave the market there is scope for criminals to increase their market share and earn additional profits,” she stated.
Retailers are responsible in how they sell age related products as they continuously ask for ID and comply with all other regulations, yet criminals can sell cigarettes to children at a pocket money price point and face little or no consequence.
The Department of Health said:
Under current legislation any retailer wishing to sell tobacco products, whether over the counter or from a self-service vending machine, must already register with the HSE National Tobacco Control Office, be placed on the Retail Register for the sale of tobacco products and pay a registration fee. However, there is a significant anomaly in that registration is applied per retailer, rather than by premises. This means that multiple retailers like supermarket chains make a single payment, regardless of the number of outlets they have. It is proposed that this new measure will address that anomaly by licensing the sale of tobacco products in line with Tobacco Free Ireland, Ireland’s tobacco control policy. It was outlined by former Health Minister James Reilly in the last Budget.
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Excise duty in Oz has brought them nearly $1 per cigarette. That’s expensive.
I’m off them 6 days. Not as difficult as it seemed.
Newry and Enniskillen will reap the rewards ……and the taxes
Stick with it – The first 10 years are the worst
with the exchange rates and wages it works out about the same.
More madness from this Gov. this will only drive the sale of tobacco products under ground where criminals can profit from it
already happening
Hmmm!
I know, why not license smack and blow dealers at, say, €500,000 per licence?
That should balance the books damn quick!
Well if we’re doing it for cigs then the same should apply to alcohol. But then again most of our TD’s like a pint so there’s no fear of that. Pot/kettle and black spring to mind.
Tobacco is dangerous in any quantity. Alcohol has no negative effects in moderate quantities. There is a difference.
More people probably die from alcohol related events than tobacco – ie car crashes, suicide, etc
I is simply a myth that more people die from alcohol related injuries/accidents than smoking. Alcohol Ireland says that 88 deaths per month in Ireland are related to alcohol consumption. As such 1,056 people per year die from incidents related to alcohol consumption.
However, in 2013 the Department of Health said that 7,000 people die every year due to smoking related illness. As you can see, there is a huge difference between the numbers that die from smoking related illness than from alcohol related incidents.
Also, a quick point on car accidents, in 2012 161 people died in road traffic incidents. On average 1 in three accidents are related to alcohol, as such on average in 2012, 54 road deaths would have been attributable to alcohol. Road traffic deaths are also on the decline.
It will always confuse me why people give my comments thumbs down, I rarely post an opinion on and article, usually I present facts when people have posted incorrect statements. In addition I also quote sources, do people not like facts? or is it just when the facts do not back up their argument?
Can you not just give your opinion and not worry about thumbs up or down? It’s up to people if they want to like what they read from you
Lets all be nicer to Simon.
Alcohol related incidents must surely cost more, how many people in A&E at the weekend are in there because of an alcohol related injury, you only have to look at the dirtbags in there on Weekend nights to know they’re costing the state a fortune
It doesn’t bother me, just confuses me. It is the same with the thumbs up. It isn’t an opinion. They are facts. It is like someone saying they don’t like or do like the sky being blue…. it’s baffling.
Jay, the cost of an A and E visit is peanuts compared to the cost associated with cancer treatment drugs. Or the cost associated with cancer patient care. The overall cost associated with treating patients with smoking related illnesses in 2012 was €2 billion euro.
This does not take into account the cost to the patient i.e. loss of income, transportation costs etc. Linda Sharp, head researcher for the National Cancer Registry conducted a study of these costs in 2010 which any one can read on their website if they are interested.
the sky pis$es me off being so feckin blue.
Ironically enough, the government receipts from taxes on cigarettes is circa € 2 billion per annum.
Filthy cancer causing sticks! Ban them all.
A Guinness fart (in a dutch oven)?
A decomposing dead body?
Egg sandwiches?
Dogturd on your shoe?
The jacks in work on a Monday morning?
Old lady perfume?
Brilliant minds such as yourself brought us the War on Drugs forty odd years ago because banning something always negates the Law of Supply and Demand
@vinheffer89… You’re a smoker , I take it. Just don’t breath your halitosis on me , thank you very much !
@ Gerry; I just realise the stupidity of trying to ban and control everything. It creates demand that is supplied by criminal enterprises which leads to an unsafe product being sold to consumers to maximise profit, an upsurge in violence to due competition between rival criminal enterprises and massive amounts of police time being occupied trying to enforce laws that will be continually broken due to the opportunity to profit. This circular pattern has been the norm for the last forty years. Nicotine is a highly addictive substance, one of the most addictive in the world. To criminalise such a product would be a moronic move with disastrous consequences but that seems to have been lost on you given that you’d rather comment on making assumptions about me.
I believe there is gerry, it’s coming from your mother’s crotch
Never got to smell ur mothers crotch. She usually pleasured me with her mouth .
Raise it to €5000.
I think what everyone here is forgetting is how cool smoking makes you look.
Dragging a tank of oxygen around is cool?
gets you a seat on a crowded bus
Smoking’s sexy and glamourously fabulous too.
“Legitimate retailers”. There’s nothing legitimate about continuing to sell tobacco decades after the world found out that it’s the cause of tens of millions of deaths every year. Find something less lethal to profit from.
YES! Precisely
Put the licence few up please
Open the doors to the black market.. Create a bigger problem for the guards.
Another great idea from the backwards gov.
You’re not thinking logically…a trade union says it’s members are going to take a pay cut in protest against something, that ain’t never going to happen.
Do they sell cigarettes in the Dail???…
They sell alcohol in the Dail …
As usual the Government should practice what they preach and get their own house in order first..People know the dangers associated with smoking and drinking..Adults can and will do what they want….
I believe there’s a push from TDs and Senators to make the Oireachtas campus smoke free.
So it’ll be just Hot Air then eh?
Ban the cancer sticks altogether.
Coffin nails
Coffin sticks
Good news for a change
Do retailers need a license to sell these chemical cigarettes?
all this hairbrained idea will do is make people but from smugglers, how stupid can this government get?
I think retails and their representatives need to recognise the overall issue at hand here. It’s not about hitting ‘soft targets’, it’s about the health of our population and reducing the enormous health costs imposed by smoking-related health issues. Less retailers selling cigarettes can only be a good thing.
why don’t they add even more tax on the cigarettes though. Not the retailer who sells them.
Fiachra. That would be right if they banned the sale of cigs altogether but this is only a revenue raising exercise. Smokers will continue to smoke and government will continue to reap the rewards. If they really cared for our health they would ban the sale of cigs full stop.
Small shops rely on the custom from people who initially come in for cigarettes and cigarettes are so highly taxed that retailers shouldn’t have to pay more when the government are already making a fortune from the sale of tobacco. Smoking is a choice.
Dying for a smoke
NANNY STATE
Every smoker should access the black market. If the Government want to make smoking all but illegal then we should behave accorgingly
I think this is an eye opener and a good example of what would happen if we legalise Marijuana. I am on neither side, but seeing this similar example says that if we are to legalise weed, the retailers or pharmacies would have to pay licence fees, the user would have to pay taxes, while they could get it at half the price, just as the cigarettes black market
Retailers make a tiny margin on tobacco related products. Their sales of cigarettes in convenience shop make up a greater proportoon of their turnover. They won’t stop selling cigarettes, they are just as addicted as the smokers.
have your say