1st October, 2024 – Respect Vapers, which represents 320,000 people who vape to quit smoking, says the Government’s decision to increase taxes on vapes is a tax on those trying to quit smoking.
It is totally unacceptable to increase the tax by 50 cent. This is much higher than the EU rate of 10c to 30c.
Vapers indicated that having tax in line with EU rates would be acceptable. Is the Government trying to raise funds on vapes rather than helping people use vapes to quit smoking.
Recent surveys report that 160,000 people have successfully quit cigarettes by using vapes. It has also been shown that since vapes became available, the number of smokers in Ireland has reduced from 25% to 18%.
The Respect Vapers review, Cutting costs, reducing harm, the economic benefits of quitting smoking**, shows that, by using vaping to quit, the average smoker saves up to €3,416 every year. That represents roughly 4 monthly social welfare payments.
It currently costs over €5,000 a year to smoke 20 cigarettes a day. The majority of smokers using vaping are amongst the low-income groups and the unemployed. Experts, including the HSE, recognise that tobacco use “perpetuates poverty” and “reduces social mobility.” The people who can least afford it are hit the hardest.
Ken Heffernan, a former smoker, said that rather than taxing vaping out of the reach of low-income smokers, the Government should actively promote vaping as an alternative to smoking, particularly amongst low-income groups.
“The fear is that increasing the tax will put taxes out of reach of those who need them to overcome tobacco addiction. Such an increase could result in vapers either returning to smoking or buying vapes from unregulated sources online.”
Healthy Ireland 2023 found that one in four (25%) of successful ‘quitters’ used vapes to get off cigarettes, compared to 19% who used nicotine replacement therapies like gums and lozenges. Vapes are Ireland’s most successful ‘quit smoking’ tool and any new taxes must bear this in mind.
6% of adults vape. The majority do so to quit, stay off or reduce the amount they smoke. Less than 1% of never-smokers are current vapers. People who’ve never smoked aren’t vaping. (NDAS, Healthy Ireland)
Increased taxes on vaping could negatively affect the Tobacco Free Ireland programme. Without the contribution vaping has made in helping people, the percentage of people smoking would be up still in the mid-20s.
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Media coverage
Irish Independent: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/outrageous-vaper-says-new-levy-on-e-cigarettes-is-a-tax-on-those-trying-to-quit-smoking/a1885311284.html