{"id":106167,"date":"2025-10-07T03:39:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T03:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/106167\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T03:39:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T03:39:16","slug":"budget-2026-big-change-to-price-of-cigarettes-on-the-way-as-smokers-set-to-be-hit-by-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/106167\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget 2026: Big change to price of cigarettes on the way as smokers set to be hit by hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Budget 2026 is set to confirm yet another unwelcome change for smokers with the price of cigarettes rising once again – but the price of a pint will remain unchanged\"AA 50c increase last year will see cost of a packet of 20 cigarettes in the most popular price category rise to \u20ac18.95<\/p>\n

The Government will increase the price of a packet of cigarettes by 50c in tomorrow\u2019s Budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move will bring the cost for brands such as Silk Cut or Benson and Hedges up to \u20ac18.95 \u2013 among the EU\u2019s most expensive.<\/p>\n

A Government source said: \u201cThe hike has been approved by the Cabinet.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmokers won\u2019t be happy but it is to save lives and at least the increase is better than last year when they went up by \u20ac1 a packet.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will be no increase in the price of a pint because of the expected reduction in VAT for the hospitality sector.<\/p>\n

\"CigaretteCigarette on an ashtray (stock image)(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

The Government source added: \u201cWe are effectively freezing the price of a pint in the Budget and it is up to individual publicans if they want to pass on the VAT reduction from 13% down to 9% to their customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last night, ministers indicated the State pension will go up by \u20ac10 and a similar amount will also be given to everyone on unemployment benefit.<\/p>\n

A \u20ac10 increase in the contributory pension will bring it 70c short of \u20ac300 a week. The current contributory State pension is \u20ac289.30 per week for those 66 or over.<\/p>\n

The insider added: \u201cA social welfare<\/a> increase of \u20ac8 has been mentioned but I think people can expect it to go up by \u20ac10. We are fully committed to looking after our pensioners and those on benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sources are adamant there will be no across-the-board energy credits for householders. Instead the plan is to help people with payment difficulties through the social welfare system and by the use of fuel allowances.<\/p>\n

The source added: \u201cThe days of giveaway Budgets are over because we are spending huge amounts of money on capital infrastructure and we just don\u2019t know economically what is coming around the corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are determined to do everything to protect the Irish economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers will present the Budget to the Dail tomorrow.<\/p>\n

RTE One\u2019s live coverage presented by Sharon Ni Bheolain and David McCullagh begins at 12.40pm.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Budget 2026 is set to confirm yet another unwelcome change for smokers with the price of cigarettes rising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[10471,79,18,19,17,19837],"class_list":{"0":"post-106167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-the-budget"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}