IRELAND IS now ranked second among the EU's 27 member states for tobacco control, according to a new report.
In 2005 it was in first place but slipped into second place, behind the UK, last year when the survey was conducted.
The countries were scored across a number of criteria including price, smoking bans in public places, spending on public information campaigns, advertising bans, health warning and stop-smoking treatment programmes.
Ireland's overall score was 74 compared to the UK's top score of 93 out of a possible 100 points.
Prof Luke Clancy, director general of the Tobacco-Free Research Institute, said Ireland's ranking had slipped because it had no tobacco price rise in 2005 and as a result tobacco prices in the UK were higher for a period than in the Republic.
In addition, he said Ireland's stop-smoking services and public information campaigns are not as good as in the UK, where overall smoking rates are now lower than they are here.
Figures for smoking-prevalence rates in the Republic differ among age groups. The Slán survey of more than 10,000 adults published in April found that in 2007, 29 per cent of over-18s were smokers.
But surveys by the Office of Tobacco Control in March found 23.6 per cent of people aged over 15 in Ireland were smokers.
This was down 1.2 per cent in a year.
Prof Clancy said this was a good result, but there was no room for complacency.
There was still a great deal more work to be done to "de-normalise" smoking and improve smoking cessation services.
"Our cessation services are failing our people," he said.
The study of tobacco control activity was actually conducted across 30 European countries but three of the 30 - Iceland, Norway and Switzerland - are not members of the EU.
Iceland had a similar score to Ireland and Norway and Malta came just behind that with 66 and 62 points respectively. Austria came last with 35 points.
Meanwhile a study of carbon monoxide levels in the breath of 340,000 people across Europe, including more than 4,000 smokers and non smokers in Ireland, has found levels among Irish women smokers were slightly higher than the European average and among Irish men they were slightly lower than the European average.
Among Irish female smokers the levels were at 15.2 parts per million, compared to the European average of 15.0. Irish male had an average level of 16.7 compared to the European average of 17.8.
A level of 8.5 parts per mission is considered a safe level of carbon monoxide in the air for people living in urban areas.
Among non-smokers in Ireland rates were 3.2 for women and 3.0 for men. Prof Clancy said this means non-smokers are still being exposed to second-hand smoke in cars and homes.
Across the EU there has been a 28 per cent decrease in carbon monoxide levels in exhaled breath among non-smokers since the beginning of 2006, largely due to smoking bans.
Carbon monoxide is a colourless, odourless gas which is extremely toxic and is inhaled when cigarettes and other tobacco products are smoked. It is also produced by vehicle exhausts.
Norma Cronin, health promotion manager of the Irish Cancer Society, said there wasn't enough help in the State for smokers to quit. There wasn't enough funding to advertise the national smokers quitline and more smoking cessation services were needed. Tobacco price should rise, she said. Some 7,000 people die in Ireland each year from smoking-related diseases.