IN A BREAK with recent practice, there were no tax increases for alcohol this year.

However, smokers have been hit with yet another price rise — bringing the price of a pack of twenty to €10 for the first time.

If you’re an average smoker — and we’re taking ’23 a day’ as the average intake here — your habit will now cost you around €4,000 a year. There’s no escaping the tax either — it was one of a raft of measures that came into effect at midnight.

But where does all that money go?

The folks at publicpolicy.ie have been looking at the numbers…

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Anti-smoking groups have welcomed the rise announced by Michael Noonan yesterday — with ASH Ireland saying more increases should be brought in if the Government is serious about encouraging a smoke-free society.

However, tobacco manufacturers have reacted angrily to the measure (as you might imagine), and Finian McGrath, the Independent Dublin TD, has descibed it as a ‘Nidge tax’ as it “plays into the hands of the criminal”.

Speaking in the Dáil last night, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that the government was “mindful” of the illicit tobacco trade.
Publicpolicy.ie is an independent research group, made up of, amongst other people, academics from UCD and Trinity. It’s funded by Atlantic Philanthropies.

Read: The main things you really need to know from Budget 2015