Tobacco industry threatens legal action over new legislative measures

Tobacco industry figures have threatened to use the Supreme Court to defeat Government plans to ban cigarette vending machines.

Limerick-based company Tobaccoland, the largest supplier of cigarette vending machines in Ireland, hit out at the Government after news that Health Minister Simon Harris plans to ban the machines through legislation aimed at achieving a tobacco-free Ireland by 2025.

Self-service vending machines are only permitted in licenses premises and registered clubs, but Mr Harris is drafting legislation to end tobacco product sales from vending machines and temporary or mobile units.

In a statement, the Department of Health said 15 EU countries have already enforced similar measures.

It said: “In the UK, England prohibited the sale of tobacco from such machines with effect from October 2011, after the successful defence of a legal challenge from the tobacco industry.”

However, Tobaccoland director James Walsh told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland: “We will bring it to the Supreme Court get a fair hearing.”

A spokesperson for an industry group called the Irish Cigarette Machine Operators Association also said the situation was different in Ireland because of its strict age controls.

He said: “In order to get cigarettes from a vending machine you can’t just walk in to a bar and use it, you have to to go to the bar and prove you are over 18 to use the machine which is token operated.”