More than half of cigarette packs in Irish survey had no Irish duty paid

More than half of the cigarettes examined in a new survey had not had Irish excise duty paid on them.

The survey, commissioned by Japan Tobacco International (JTI) Ireland, looked at over 5,000 packs of cigarettes taken at random from towns and cities across the country earlier this year.

It found 57 per cent of the packs had no exchequer duty paid on them, while 14 per cent of them were illegal counterfeits.

Counterfeit cigarettes are cigarettes manufactured without the authorisation of the brand owners. 

Galway had the highest proportion of non-Irish duty-paid cigarettes, with three-quarters of the packs examined falling into that category. In Dublin the figures was two-thirds.

Wexford had the highest rate of counterfeit cigarettes, at 25 per cent.

The survey involved 5,000 empty packs of cigarettes being collected randomly from streets and public bins across Ireland’s 22 largest cities and towns between 16th February and 3rd April 2026.

Researchers then examined the packs to identify where they came from, whether Irish taxes had been paid on them, and to determine if they were illegal counterfeit products.

JTI owns tobacco brands including Benson & Hedges, Silk Cut, and Amber Leaf.