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Child Item

How much should a pack of cigarettes cost in Ireland?

MJI

A pack of Marlboro cigarettes costs less than €1.80 in Sochi, Russia

The same pack of Marlboros will set you back more than 8 times that amount in Australia, where they cost €14.54

This map produce by IBM shows a general trend of higher prices in Western Europe, North America and Australia. With much lower prices in Asia, Africa and South America.

http://2.ashbu.cartocdn.com/ibtimes/api/v1/map/f4cfc8baa7f436df17c3d8554ae19619:1391790290023.8901/0/2/1/1.png

Here in Ireland the price is now €10.50.

Is this too high, too low or about right?

How much should a pack of cigarettes cost in Ireland?

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LDN_Irish

nelly17 wrote: »

). This, in the long run would save the Health Services millions but the Government wont bite the bullet on it and would rather eek up the price for an immediate monetary gain at a long term cost to the country.

It's not just an immediate monetary gain though. Cigarette tax is many times higher healh service expenditure on tobacco related disease so if your eye is on the money rather than health it makes much more sense for governments to rinse smokers whilst banking on them remaining smokers.

osarusan

LDN_Irish wrote: »

Cigarette tax is many times higher healh service expenditure on tobacco related disease.

Really? Many times? Where did you read that?

More, yes, but I'm pretty sure it's not many times.

Something like 1.9 billion in tax, and 1.2 billion in spending.

LDN_Irish

osarusan wrote: »

Really? Many times? Where did you read that?

More, yes, but I'm pretty sure it's not many times.

Something like 1.9 billion in tax, and 1.2 billion in spending.

Do you have a link for some Irish figures? The last time I had this conversation I could only find reliable stats for Britain which was something like direct tax take 12 billion and direct health care expenditure 3 billion.* I've just grabbed the first link I've found here and it wasn't what I was working off before which puts direct health care cost be teen 3 and 6 billion. So I'll retract "many times" from my previous post, but the point remains that smoking brings in more in revenue than it costs in health care spending in monetary terms.

https://fullfact.org/factchecks/does_smoking_cost_as_much_as_it_makes_for_the_treasury-29288

* I'd be surprised if your estimate above is correct for Ireland because it's so different to everything I've ever seen from Britain but it's still plausible.

** None of this even takes in to account the indirect costs. There's a lot of research that shows that smokers actually cost the health service less than non smokers when you take in to account the extra years non smokers have on average compared to smokers. These tend to be the most expensive years of a person's life to the exchequer. I'm not going to Google for a link here because it's not central to my point but it'd be easy to find things for and against if you're interested.

fizzypish

Zillah wrote: »

Oh my God just stop and think for a second.

He said more than 16 times. It is less than 16 times. Much less than sixteen times. It is actually almost exactly 8 times, which is less than 16 times.

You just failed your repeat exam in junior cert maths.

Been looking for a valid reason to hand my degree back and I think we have a winner.

petes

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

Meh, I don't smoke so it makes no odds to me. Jack them up to €20 a packet for all I care. I just hope they're too expensive for my kids to even think about picking them up, as well as them being smart enough to know better than to go near them in the first place

For the last couple of weeks I was getting the bus to work and I didn't see any of the kids smoking 'packs' of cigarettes! All smoking rollies. How much is a box of Amber Leaf now? €6?

KERSPLAT!

petes wrote: »

For the last couple of weeks I was getting the bus to work and I didn't see any of the kids smoking 'packs' of cigarettes! All smoking rollies. How much is a box of Amber Leaf now? €6?

Bump them all to €20!!

petes

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

Bump them all to €20!!

I'm not really in favour of that as I smoke

nelly17

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

Bump them all to €20!!

Would just fuel the black market more IMO

zoobizoo

nelly17 wrote: »

Would just fuel the black market more IMO

Only among the addicted...

the_syco

BrokenArrows wrote: »

They know for a fact that smoking causes cancer.
Any other product on the market which is even suspected of causing cancer is removed immediately.

Red meat causes cancer.

sonny.knowles

EUR 5 per biff.

rainbow kirby

As much as possible. Disgusting habit.

beertons

5.85 was enough. Plus, it brought in all the denominations in change in the machines.

sonny.knowles

beertons wrote: »

5.85 was enough. Plus, it brought in all the denominations in change.

5.88?

osarusan

LDN_Irish wrote: »

Do you have a link for some Irish figures? The last time I had this conversation I could only find reliable stats for Britain which was something like direct tax take 12 billion and direct health care expenditure 3 billion.* I've just grabbed the first link I've found here and it wasn't what I was working off before which puts direct health care cost be teen 3 and 6 billion. So I'll retract "many times" from my previous post, but the point remains that smoking brings in more in revenue than it costs in health care spending in monetary terms.

https://fullfact.org/factchecks/does_smoking_cost_as_much_as_it_makes_for_the_treasury-29288

* I'd be surprised if your estimate above is correct for Ireland because it's so different to everything I've ever seen from Britain but it's still plausible.

** None of this even takes in to account the indirect costs. There's a lot of research that shows that smokers actually cost the health service less than non smokers when you take in to account the extra years non smokers have on average compared to smokers. These tend to be the most expensive years of a person's life to the exchequer. I'm not going to Google for a link here because it's not central to my point but it'd be easy to find things for and against if you're interested.

It's a couple of years old:

The Government rakes in an estimated €2 billion a year in tax revenue from cigarettes but roughly the same amount is spent on treating illness caused by tobacco.

http://www.independent.ie/regionals/wicklowpeople/lifestyle/government-spends-2bn-tax-revenue-from-cigarettes-on-smokingrelated-illnesses-29083408.html

Anyway, I think one issue is whether further price rises simply push more people to illegal cigarettes to such an extent that it actually means less revenue.

beertons

sonny.knowles wrote: »

5.88?

Nobody wants the 1 and 2 cent coins.

sonny.knowles

sonny.knowles wrote: »

5.88?

Or 3.88

sonny.knowles

beertons wrote: »

Nobody wants the 1 and 2 cent coins.

I love them, dreading the rounding.

[Deleted User]

Sums...............

Magico Gonzalez

Zero sympathy for smokers. Let them pay through the nose or give up. Immature habit for simpletons.

The Backwards Man

Magico Gonzalez wrote: »

Zero sympathy for smokers. Let them pay through the nose or give up. Immature habit for simpletons.

How's that job at the quitter's hotline going for ya?

Sam Kade

Magico Gonzalez wrote: »

Zero sympathy for smokers. Let them pay through the nose or give up. Immature habit for simpletons.

What if your partner smokes, how would you feel about that?

roadrunner16

washman3 wrote: »

Cigs are an unbelievable cash cow for the Government.
The extortionate price has little or nothing to do with health and wellbeing, in spite of the rubbish they frequently spout.

And so they should be ,

"Currently, tobacco-related illnesses cost the State up to €2 billion a year – €2,000 for every smoker in Ireland." quote from the journal.ie

smoking costs the tax payer more than the government gets back from tax on cigarettes.

300,756 bed days in hospitals due to smoking related illness,

280,000,000 euro due to smoking related illnesses, - figure from 2008,

but hey im just some guy on the internet, dont trust me do the reding/googling your self.

petes

roadrunner16 wrote: »

And so they should be ,

"Currently, tobacco-related illnesses cost the State up to €2 billion a year – €2,000 for every smoker in Ireland." quote from the journal.ie

smoking costs the tax payer more than the government gets back from tax on cigarettes.

300,756 bed days in hospitals due to smoking related illness,

280,000,000 euro due to smoking related illnesses, - figure from 2008,

but hey im just some guy on the internet, dont trust me do the reding/googling your self.

I'm a smoker and if I was in a hospital bed due to a smoking illness the tax payer wouldn't be paying for it

LDN_Irish

osarusan wrote: »

It's a couple of years old:

http://www.independent.ie/regionals/wicklowpeople/lifestyle/government-spends-2bn-tax-revenue-from-cigarettes-on-smokingrelated-illnesses-29083408.html

Anyway, I think one issue is whether further price rises simply push more people to illegal cigarettes to such an extent that it actually means less revenue.

Thanks for that. I'm not implying that you need to do anything else here but I'm sceptical of the claims in that link. It just doesn't tally with anything else I've read and is unbelievably different from the stats released for Britain despite them only having marginally higher tax on them. Completely agree with your second paragraph. Disagree with the previous poster who said most are buying counterfeit or smuggled. I've only seen one pack of counterfeit (Palace in a red box if you're wondering) in my entire life and that was stereotypically when I was on the North Side chatting to a fella back when I smoked.

I read that governments didn't want to tax unrolled tobacco too much because of how easily it's concealed compared to a box of smokes but apparently they're revising that strategy now that so many people are on the Amber Leaf. Time will tell how that goes.

osarusan

LDN_Irish wrote: »

Thanks for that. I'm not implying that you need to do anything else here but I'm sceptical of the claims in that link. It just doesn't tally with anything else I've read and is unbelievably different from the stats released for Britain despite them only having marginally higher tax on them. Completely agree with your second paragraph. Disagree with the previous poster who said most are buying counterfeit or smuggled. I've only seen one pack of counterfeit (Palace in a red box if you're wondering) in my entire life and that was stereotypically when I was on the North Side chatting to a fella back when I smoked.

Yeah, don't know where they got the figures either - it doesn't say. The expenditure was higher than I'd remembered.

Black market cigarettes seems to account for just about 25% of the market now.

Bear in mind that many smuggled brands are the same brands that are also sold legally here, so not immediately obvious as smuggled.

Tony EH

A tax on fools.

Intelligent people don't care how much they cost.

petes

Tony EH wrote: »

A tax on fools.

Intelligent people don't care how much they cost.

So you think you are more intelligent than anyone that smokes?

Tony EH

With everything we know about smoking, you'd want to be an absolute fucking idiot to start.

Penny Tration

The usual 'filthy habit' comments are out.

It is not a habit. it is an addiction. massive difference.

It's also extremely difficult to quit. I quit and it took about eight attempts before I managed it. Took my sister over ten attempts, boyfriend 7 attempts, dad more than 20 attempts.

It's not easy and it's not a habit.