Ministers publish 2022 Tobacco Free Ireland Annual Report
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From: Department of Health
- Published on: 26 December 2023
- Last updated on: 27 December 2023
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and the Minister of State for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Hildegarde Naughton, today published the 2022 Tobacco Free Ireland Annual Report.
Tobacco Free Ireland is Ireland’s national tobacco control policy which sets a target for Ireland to be tobacco free by the year 2025. A high-level action plan for Tobacco Free Ireland was published in March 2015 and each year the Department of Health reports on the ongoing implementation of the plan.
The 2022 Annual Report outlines several major achievements in 2022, including:
- the removal of VAT from all Nicotine Replacement Therapy in the Budget 2023
- the publication of Ireland’s first National Stop Smoking Clinical Guideline (Guideline No.28)
- publication of the second State of Tobacco Control in Ireland Report by the Health Service Executive (HSE)
- further expansion of the peer-led “We Can Quit” programme. 49 “We Can Quit” courses were run in 2022, 35 of which were run in Sláintecare Health Community areas
- the inclusion of further restrictions on e-cigarettes in the Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill
Minister Donnelly said:
"We have made great progress in tobacco control in recent years, and it is important that we continue towards our goal of achieving a Tobacco Free Ireland. Smoking remains our number one cause of preventable death and disease, so I encourage every smoker to contact the HSE Quit Programme to start their journey to becoming a non-smoker.
"We removed VAT from all Nicotine Replacement Therapies last year and we recently included those therapies in the Drug Payment Scheme. We will continue to implement measures that make it easier for people to quit smoking."
Minister Naughton said:
"Great strides have been made with the percentage of the population who smoke falling from 23% in 2015 to 18% in 2022. Around 22,000 people are expected to engage with HSE anti-smoking services in 2024, of which a quarter will require medical intervention and supports. I am very happy to have secured a total of €1.82 million to assist these people kick the habit next year."