Table 1

Government and tobacco industry tax/price increases, and key themes emerging from tobacco industry lobbying submissions, Ireland, 2000–2009

	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09
Tax/price increases (cents) after tobacco industry submissions
Government tax increase	0	13	50	25	0	0	50	80	2.7	21.5
Tobacco industry price increases	10	21	16	13	10	20	10	10	2.3	23.5
Tax element of tobacco industry increase	4	7	6	5	4	7	4	4	0.8	8
Key themes from tobacco industry submissions
Increasing price will increase the illegal trade	+	+	+	++	++	++	++	+++	+++	++++
Ireland's taxes on tobacco are among the highest in the world	++	++	++	++	++	++	++	++	++	++
Do not increase price in the forthcoming budget	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	++
The impact of a high tobacco tax policy in the UK and illegal trade	++	++	++	++	++	++	++	++	nc	nc
Loss of revenue to the State from cross border sales	+	nc	nc	++	+	+	+	++	+	+
Critical comment from tobacco industry concerning previous year's price increase	+	±	+	±	+	nc	nc	nc	+	nc
Provision of own data on the extent of the illegal trade in Ireland	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc	++	++	+++	+++	++++
Tobacco price increases will impact disproportionately on poorer smokers	+	nc	nc	+	+	+	nc	+	+	+
Tobacco price increases will impact negatively on inflation	+	+	+	+	nc	+	+	nc	nc	nc
Benefit of a price differential between Ireland and Northern Ireland	nc	+	++	++	nc	–	nc	nc	nc	–
Tobacco price increases will impact negatively on legal traders	nc	nc	nc	nc	+	nc	+	+	+	+
Tobacco price increases will lead to increased sales to minors as illegal traders will not ask for proof of age	nc	nc	+	nc	nc	nc	+	+	nc	nc
Tobacco price increases will lead to increased internet sales	nc	nc	+	+	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc
Tobacco price increases will lead to increased wage demands	nc	nc	+	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc
Do not remove tobacco products from consumer price index	nc	nc	+	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc
Reduce value added tax on tobacco products	+	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc	nc

−/+ denote the strength and tone of comment with +++ indicating the highest degree of strength and tone of comment; nc, no comment.