NOT GOOD news for smokers.
The Irish government have been advised to hike the price of a box of cigarettes up to €20 by the year 2025. (£18.43, $23.50 USD)
The Irish Heart Foundation recommended the new price in order to help people quit smoking.
The IHF have also advised that the government should quadruple funding for services which assist people in their journey to stop smoking, such as the HSE’s smoking cessation clinics.
Currently the average price for a box of cigarettes is around €13, which means that prices will have to rise by almost €1.20 each year if the changes are implemented in the annual budget in time for the 2025 deadline.
There are approximately 830,000 smokers in Ireland, according to The Journal, and going by those statistics it means Ireland has more quitters than smokers.
However with many ex-smokers replacing their old habit with vapes and e-cigarettes, which are not bound by the same restrictive advertising laws as their tobacco counterparts, it is unsure how many people in Ireland are still addicted to nicotine.
Some young smokers in Ireland are completely skipping the smoking phase and moving straight onto e-cigarettes, providing a worrying glimpse into the future where one addiction is replaced by the other.
Cigarettes in Ireland rose above €10 for the first time in the 2014 budget and has been steadily rising since.
