Only eight per cent of smokers aged eight to 17 are asked for identification when they buy cigarettes, according to a survey for the Office of Tobacco Control.
The MRBI survey also found support among smokers and non-smokers for bans on smoking in public areas. Almost 1,500 people were questioned in the survey.
The full results will be released at a conference on tobacco control tomorrow and Friday.
Smokers (93 per cent) and non-smokers (89 per cent) are strongly in favour of doubling the fines for anybody selling tobacco to underage smokers and introducing licensing for tobacco products, the survey revealed. Measures to ban product placement, to ban actors from accepting payments to smoke in public and to ban all forms of advertising also received widespread support.
"It would be difficult to underestimate the degree to which the public generally and smokers specifically are looking to the Government to make smoking less attractive to young people and to help current smokers stop smoking," says the report of the survey.
Smokers, it says, "are particularly frustrated. Most (72 per cent) would like to give up. Most (68 per cent) have tried. They recognise the dangers of smoking and the social unacceptability of smoking and therefore would fully support the Government in any efforts to discourage smoking amongst young people or to help current smokers to give up."
A suggestion that the legal minimum smoking age be raised to 21 was supported by those surveyed (66 per cent) but only half that number said they would see this move as "very effective".
"This is probably a reflection, not of how sensible this measure is in principle, but how this measure would be implemented in practice," says the report. "Clearly, current minimum age restrictions are not being enforced by retailers, with just eight per cent of eight to 17-year-old smokers being asked for identification on the last occasion they purchased cigarettes."
The report does not give a breakdown of the age groups within the eight to 17 range. Dr Michael Boland, chairman of the Office for Tobacco control, said the survey shows the public believes strongly, including smokers themselves, that further Government action is required to control smoking.