The Irish Heart Foundation welcomed today’s budget announcement of a new tax on e-cigarettes, along with a 75 cent increase on the price of a pack of cigarettes.

Director of Advocacy Chris Macey said the tax on vapes was a crucial measure to reduce youth use of e-cigarettes and protect children’s health.

And whilst the 75 cent increase fell below the Foundation’s call for a €2.10 increase prior to raising the price of a pack of 20 to €20 by 2025, he said it represents an additional deterrent to discourage young people from starting to smoke.

But he queried whether the Government needed to wait as long as next year’s Budget to introduce the tax on e-cigarettes as announced by Minister for Finance Michael McGrath.

“The Government knows the threat they pose to the future health of our children and that higher taxes could significantly reduce the number of child vapers because of their sensitivity to price increases.”

Last week, the national charity called on the Minister to introduce a 10c per millilitre of e-liquid tax, which would have increased the cost of single-use vapes by €2.

“Ireland has been one of the slowest countries to react in Europe to the vaping menace – we are one of the last countries across the entire Continent where it is still legal to sell vapes to children,” said Mr Macey.

“And more than half of EU member States have already imposed additional taxes on e-cigarettes to protect children’s health.

“The current legislation to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s has been delayed for years – and we still don’t know when it will be enforced.  There should be no unnecessary delay in the imposition of e-cigarette tax.

The Foundation also welcomed the doubling of the VAT Compensation Scheme which enables charities to recoup a portion of their VAT spend from €5 million to €10 million.