NFRN highlights government’s lack of concern over tobacco plain packaging

Plain packaging in Australia has seen illicit tobacco consumption reach a new high of 13.3% of the market

NFRN has said civil servants are ignoring the elephant in the room when it comes to plain packaging as Australian evidence demonstrates surge in illicit trade after it was introduced

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Plain packaging in Australia has seen illicit tobacco consumption reach a new high of 13.3% of the market

NFRN Ireland believes that replies to Dáil questions, published last month, show an alarming lack of concern about the potential impact the introduction of plain packaging of tobacco on Ireland’s thriving black market could have. 

The NFRN refers to separate replies from the Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Sean Sherlock, and the Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly. The federation believes these effectively state that the High Level Implementation Group overseeing plain packaging will not bother looking at its impact on the illicit trade.

The group has highlighted research conducted by KPMG and published in Australia on 3 November, that has shown that the introduction of plain packaging a year ago has seen illicit tobacco consumption reach a new high of 13.3% of the market. This is a growth of 12.7% over the past 12 months. The KPMG data shows that prior to the introduction of plain packaging, the illicit tobacco trade in Australia had been in decline since 2010.

Commenting on the Australian findings, NFRN Ireland president Joe Sweeney said: "This is an astonishing dereliction of duty to the retail trade in this country given that the evidence from Australia shows that plain packaging has led to an increase in the illicit cigarette trade there."

He continued: "Minister Sherlock’s reply said his department, with responsibility for jobs and business, effectively washed their hands of anything to do with job protection in the retail trade and said it was a matter only for the Revenue Commissioners."

Sweeney added: "Minister Reilly’s reply said the Group had no direct responsibility in regard to illicit tobacco. This is not surprising from a Minister who has said he doesn’t care if the Irish taxpayer is sued for billions over the introduction of plain packaging while his Department is continually unable to meet its budget targets."

It is felt that the Minister for Health’s disregard for the Irish economy and contempt for the retail trade was amply demonstrated by his recent announcement of a tenfold increase in the licensing fee charged to tobacco retailers.

Sweeney says civil servants turing their backs on the impact of plain packaging, are also turning their back on the detrimental impact the related increase in illict trade will have on the sector. He added: "If the Australian experience was to be repeated here we would see the level of illicit trade grow from the already shocking rate of 27.9% with significant further losses for legitimate retailers and the exchequer."

NFRN Ireland has written to the secretary of the High Level Implementation Group, the Minister for Health, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and also the Minister for Finance seeking to meet with them to explain directly the impact of illicit trade in Ireland and why it should be of grave concern to them all when implementing plain packaging.

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