During the Committee Stage of the Bill that was being considered that would, amongst other things, provide for the introduction of a licencing regime for retailers selling tobacco and vaping products, the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly TD, said,
” Obviously we need to put a licensing system in place, and we need to work with retailers to make sure that happens. Some of the pieces of that will take time and will need to be done in consultation with the retailers who will need to implement all this. October 12th 2023.
The Bill passed through all stages of the legislative process in December 2023 and was signed into law on 13th December.
The Association, in a letter to the Minister in October (view here) noted his commitment to consult with retailers on the new licensing regime and forwarded our suggestions to make for stronger and more effective legislation.
Despite repeated follow up letters from the Association throughout 2024 to the Minister, the Minister of State Colm Burke, the Department, despite advances to other Ministers, Deputies and Senators and finally the Ombudsman , the promised consultations with ANY retailers or their representative bodies NEVER took place and a few weeks after he lost his seat in the General Election, the Minister signed a Statutory Instrument that fixed the Annual license fee at €1800 for those wishing to sell tobacco and vaping products.
How are retailers ever going to ever believe what a Minister says in the most sacred of spaces, our parliament, when the words of Minister Donnelly ring hollow and were clearly untruthful?
The National Executive of CSNA are to be commended for initiating the Judicial Review into the setting of fees at such a level that was obviously constructed to prevent existing retailers from applying for licenses, in the mistaken belief that fewer outlets would equate to reduced consumption, a belief that the Department have NO evidence to assert from an Irish perspective.
While the first wave of outlets electing to NOT sell cigarettes will be pubs, hotels and clubs, it is most likely that some smaller shops will not seek a license or will choose not to sell either tobacco or vaping products even though this will affect their overall footfall.
Our primary concern, which was borne out from the Affidavit of the Principal Officer, was that the initial fee was a mere entry level license fee, subject to regular and frequent increases.
Retailers currently only supply 62% of the cigarette consumption market, the balance is a mix of smuggled, Duty-Free and purchases from other EU Member States. The fee that has been set will over time, become increasingly more costly per pack sold as these ratios become even more skewed against the legal channel.
There is little doubt that it is the intention of the Department of Health to introduce a “denormalization” rationale in all matter’s tobacco, and most likely, any vaping and non-pharma nicotine containing products.
