A TAX ON e-cigarettes would raise an additional €17m in revenue for the state, a specialist expert group has told the government ahead of Budget 2026.

Government is set to double the price of e-cigarette refill cartridges, placing a €5 duty on the products, and add a €1 tax to disposable vapes next year, it announced last year. 

The Tax Strategy Group, an expert advisory panel at the Department of Finance, has said that the additional duties, expected to be in place early next year, will raise a total of €17m.

In its annual reports ahead of Budget 2026, which is expected to be announced in October, the tax experts said that the figure is “purposely set at a lower level to avoid overestimating revenue”.

It admitted that there is “limited information available” around the sale of e-cigarettes in Ireland and bases its “conservative estimate” of the total revenue on the prevalence of the devices here and the outcome of similar taxes in other countries.

The excise on vapes in Ireland will place a fee on e-liquid at a rate of 50c for every millilitre of liquid, the government announced last year. Irish vaping firm Hale has told the Department of Finance that the rate is “significantly higher than the EU average”.

Hale, according to the tax experts, shared a commissioned report from KPMG and Forvis Mazars with the Department and claims a gradual tax increase to the devices would “improve outcomes in relation to the introduction of a national excises”.

The tax experts, in response, highlighted the Revenue Commission’s analysis of Hales taxation approach, which claimed that an implemented scheme would have an “extremely limited effectiveness in a non-harmonised regime”.