With almost 700,000 smokers in Ireland, cigarette smoking continues to be the most serious challenge confronting public health policy and the leading cause of premature death and ill health in Ireland. Vaping is the most effective harm reduction and smoking cessation aid there is and is significantly more cost-effective than smoking. Tax on vaping must not undermine the effectiveness of vaping to quit smoking.

It’s also important that tax on vaping does not create a larger black market of illegal and unregulated products. The RRPA supports a stamp-based excise duty which entails a level of product checking and due diligence being applied to imported vaping products. It also ensures clear visible evidence of those products on which the appropriate taxes has been paid. These features create significant barriers to the illicit trade supplied by black market actors. This is evident in Italy where for years they have successfully operated a stamp-based tax on vaping that has been instrumental in eliminating the black market in vaping products, and yet is very simple to operate and implement. The RRPA advocates for a taxation regime that is consistent with tax rates elsewhere in the EU.