Meanwhile, the Irish Heart Foundation is arguing that the increase falls short of tackling tobacco use among young adults. The group had previously suggested a price increase of up to €20 by 2025, which would be achievable via a €2 tax hike this year. With regards to vaping products the group said an excise tax of 6c on e-liquids would be appropriate.
Plain packaging regulation
In 2017, the Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Act which was signed into law by President Michael D Higgins in 2015, took effect. The policy group on tobacco and the faculty of public health medicine at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) of Ireland, said this motion was a step in the right direction. The chair of the policy group on tobacco, Dr. Des Cox, believes that the introduction of plain packaging is playing a main role in reducing the appeal of cigarettes.
Meanwhile, a 2019 survey by Healthy Ireland, had indicated that the local increase in vaping rates has been stable with no cause for alarm. More importantly, it also highlighted that the number of people taking up vaping is lower than the amount of those who have been quitting smoking.
In the last five years smoking rates have fallen from 23 to 17%
Based on Central Statistics Office figures this means that there are around 246,000 people who use vapes or e-cigarettes, equating roughly to 1 in 20 people. The Healthy Ireland report also indicated, that in the last five years the portion of the population who smoke, has fallen from 23 to 17%. Over the same period the number of people who reported vaping has increased by only 2%, from 3 to 5% of the population.
The survey has also shown that of the smokers who attempted to quit, some 38% used e-cigarettes as smoking cessation tools. From interviews conducted over the last year with 7,413 people living in Ireland aged 15 or older, one quarter of Irish people aged between 25 and 34 have tried vaping, with 8% eight per cent of that age cohort being current users.
