{"id":623,"date":"2025-08-01T12:11:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T12:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/?p=623"},"modified":"2025-08-05T08:08:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T08:08:18","slug":"irelands-untaxed-cigarette-market-now-worth-e790-million-retailers-say-breaking-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/2025\/08\/01\/irelands-untaxed-cigarette-market-now-worth-e790-million-retailers-say-breaking-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s untaxed cigarette market now worth \u20ac790 million, retailers say &#8211; Breaking News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"634\" height=\"420\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-1913353.avif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-624\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-1913353.avif 634w, https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-1913353-300x199.avif 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 634px) 100vw, 634px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>01 May 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS) has said that the Revenue Commissioner\u2019s Illegal Tobacco Products Research Survey 2024 proves that the Government is losing the battle against Ireland\u2019s booming market in illicit tobacco, stating that the untaxed cigarette market is now worth \u20ac790 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wednesday&#8217;s Revenue Commissioner survey found that 37 per cent of cigarette packs in circulation had no Irish excise duty paid as they were either illegal or purchased outside Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This marks an increase from 34 per cent in 2023. In the case of the roll-your-own tobacco market, the proportion of products in circulation with no Irish duty paid was a massive 49 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The regulated cigarette market in Ireland \u2013 for which excise duty was paid \u2013 had a total retail value \u20ac1.34 billion in 2024, meaning that untaxed cigarette market &#8211; making up the 37 per cent of the cigarettes in circulation according to this week\u2019s survey \u2013 had a retail value of \u20ac790 million in 2024, RAS said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u20ac550 million of this was accounted for by illegal cigarettes. The Revenue Commissioners successfully seized \u20ac96 million in illegal cigarettes in 2024, meaning they seized less than one in five of all illegal cigarettes in circulation in Ireland last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RAS spokesperson, Benny Gilsenan, said: \u201cWith a retail value of \u20ac790 million, the scale of Ireland\u2019s untaxed tobacco market is staggering \u2013 and it\u2019s taking business away from legitimate Irish retailers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is clear that the Government has lost control of Ireland\u2019s tobacco black market; and their current rate of seizure is only the tip of the iceberg. Ireland needs a new strategy to tackle illegal cigarette smuggling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne of the main reasons Ireland\u2019s untaxed cigarette market has grown so large is because continuous increases in excise are driving people to purchase the cigarettes from the black market or abroad, a trend being allowed by a serious lack of enforcement of duty free and travel allowances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Retailers Against Smuggling siad they are calling on the Government to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Freeze excise on cigarettes, which is already the highest in Europe, and is clearly fuelling tobacco smuggling;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Increase staffing and scanner resources to detect illegal tobacco being smuggled into Ireland, including through our airports through breaches of duty-free allowances;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Increase the fines and prison sentences for court convictions for illegal smuggling.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>01 May 2025 Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS) has said that the Revenue Commissioner\u2019s Illegal Tobacco Products Research Survey 2024 proves that the Government is losing the battle against Ireland\u2019s booming market in illicit tobacco, stating that the untaxed cigarette market is now worth \u20ac790 million. Wednesday&#8217;s Revenue Commissioner survey found that 37 per cent of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,28,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cigarette-smuggling","category-illicit-cigarettes","category-illicit-goods"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":625,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623\/revisions\/625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}