If you’re a smoker you may be paying big money for the habit by 2020.
That’s if the Irish cancer society get their request for cigarette prices to be risen.
They’ve asked the Government to follow Australia’s lead and increase the cost of smoking after the Ozzies announced they plan to raise the price of a packet of cigarettes to AU$40 (€28.50) by 2020.
Today is World Cancer Day today, and the Irish society claim that one in four cancer deaths in Ireland are caused by smoking, and said Ireland should follow Australia and rise the prices to almost €30.
It claims that tobacco taxes are one of the most effective ways of cutting the number of people who smoke.
Donal Buggy, Head of Services and Advocacy at the Irish Cancer Society said: “We need to send a strong signal that the Government is serious about reaching its target of a Tobacco Free Ireland by 2025.
“To do this we need to follow the example of Australia, where significant spikes in excise duty, next to policies such as plain packaging, have seen a dramatic fall in the smoking rate to 12.8% by the middle of 2016. In Ireland, the smoking rate is just under 20%.”
Around 20,000 people are diagnosed with invasive cancer in Ireland every year, with 3,000 dying from cancer a year.
They claim that one in four of those deaths are caused from smoking.