Alongside other policies such as public health warnings about the dangers of smoking and advertising bans, higher tobacco taxes help to discourage smoking uptake and encourage quitting, it says. <\/p>\n
The Health Information and Quality Authority<\/a> (Hiqa) said it has begun an analysis of tobacco affordability at the request of the chief medical officer. <\/p>\n It noted taxation had added 24 per cent to the price of a packet of 20 cigarettes since 2020, but the average weekly earning increased by 28 per cent in the same period.<\/p>\n In its analysis, Hiqa will look at how the affordability of tobacco is measured, how affordable tobacco is in Ireland compared with other EU countries and the UK, and whether alternative measures should be used to assess affordability. <\/p>\n Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is widely used internationally to analyse affordability. However, the use of GDP in affordability analyses may not always be reflective of actual household purchasing power in Ireland, it noted.<\/p>\n A report summarising the findings of the analysis will be finalised and submitted to inform decision-making by the chief medical officer and the Department of Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hiqa\u2019s deputy director of health technology assessment, Michelle O\u2019Neill, said as affordability decreases, \u201csmoking initiation and tobacco consumption decline and quit attempts increase.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn our analysis, we will consider how Ireland compares to other countries in terms of tobacco affordability, and we will consider different affordability indicators such as household disposable income, wage growth, and household expenditure in addition to GDP to get a fuller picture of how affordable tobacco is for the average Irish household.\u201d<\/p>\n [\u00a0Sale of vapes and cigarettes to young people could be bannedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Ireland aims to drive smoking prevalence below 5 per cent through the country\u2019s national policy, Tobacco Free Ireland.<\/p>\n The Government<\/a> has taken a number of steps in recent years to reduce smoking rates further, including raising the legal purchase age to 21, banning disposable vapes and bright flavour descriptors and restricting self-service vending machines.<\/p>\n The Government is also considering a ban on the sale of tobacco and nicotine-inhaling products to anyone born after a certain date, following the introduction of similar legislation in the UK<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Hiqa](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/UR23WSTJXTQHOB42GNWRDQP2SE.jpg\")
Hiqa is to review the affordability of tobacco. Photograph: Getty Images <\/p>\n