The Deputy will be aware the Office of Tobacco Control was merged into the Health Service Executive (HSE) in December of last year. All of the core functions of the Office including the maintenance of the tobacco retail register, advice to the Minister on control and regulation of tobacco products, consultation with national and international bodies in the field of smoking prevention, making recommendations to the Minister on measures to reduce or eliminate smoking, and supporting research to identify measures to reduce the incidence of smoking, and preparing and publishing research were retained and a National Office for Tobacco Control has been set up within the HSE.
The HSE has no function in relation to illicit and counterfeit cigarettes which are primarily a matter for the Revenue Commissioners. In this regard, I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that they continue to implement a wide-ranging programme of measures to combat illicit and counterfeit cigarettes including seizures of illegal products and prosecutions of offenders, monitoring of internet sites and importation routes, monitoring of sales patterns to identify and investigate irregularities and target enforcement activity, contributing to action taken at E.U. level to improve the controls of excisable products in the community, and monitoring of sea cargo on the basis of risk analysis-seizures. In the period 2008 to 2010 the Irish Customs Service seized a total of 532 million cigarettes with an estimated retail value of €222 million representing just under 30,000 individual seizures.
There is a range of measures under consideration by the Tobacco Policy Review Group (TPRG ) including price, enforcement of existing legislation and cessation services. I anticipate that the report of the TPRG will be completed in the coming months and that this will be brought to Government for decision.