A 30 cent rise in the cost of a packet of 20 cigarettes was a "farce" and the increase should be €3, confirmed smoker Emmet Stagg (Lab, Kildare north) told the Dáil yesterday.
But Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said there would be an inflationary effect with a €3 rise because cigarettes were in the consumer price index.
"If we could get social partners to agree that like other countries we could leave it out of inflation figures," he said, they could have a significant increase, but currently "it's just not a runner".
However, he pointed out that while the 30c increase to bring a packet of 20 to €7.45 would raise the consumer price index by 0.2 per cent, it would result in a 1 per cent reduction in smoking, the equivalent of 59 million cigarettes. Mr Ahern said the numbers smoking dropped by 5 per cent last year.
Speaking during the first financial motion debate, in which the price rise was approved from midnight on Wednesday, Mr Stagg told the Dáil he had smoked for as long as he remembered.
He said it was "nonsense that this is a health measure. It's not. It has no effect on the consumption of cigarettes because it's a small amount. It will bring in €63 million. If it was effective it would actually reduce the amount of money coming into the State".
He added that "30 cent won't stop anybody buying a packet of cigarettes. €3 might. Then you'll see a reduction in revenue to the State from smoking.
"I certainly would support that. I don't think people should smoke if they can possibly avoid it. People are addicted to the damn weed and it's a very serious addiction and I say that from experience."
Kieran O'Donnell (FG, Limerick East) said his party believed "it might put pressure on many elderly people, but we deem the measure constructive from a health viewpoint and we won't oppose it".
Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar was "pretty sure" there had been an increase in smoking.
"The excuse given is that a large number of people have come here from central and eastern Europe, that they smoke a lot and that's the reason for the increase," but he was sceptical of that.
Seán Sherlock (Lab, Cork East) urged the Government "to look at nicotine replacement substances, such as gums and patches, which are very prohibitively priced".
Michael Mulcahy (FF, Dublin South Central) warned that if the increase was too high, "there will be more smuggling and more cigarettes will be sold on the black market".
Mr Ahern agreed that there was a problem with contraband cigarettes. A total of 56.7 million illegal cigarettes, worth €19.4 million, were seized this year.
However, he said consumption was falling despite the increased population.
Some 24 per cent of the population currently smoked and the incidence of smoking was among those aged 19 to 35, of whom 32 per cent smoked, and 17 per cent of smokers in the 15 to 18 age group.
