Minister for Health and the State had sought to have the CJEU deal with questions, including whether the 2014 EU Tobacco Products Directive is valid, in advance of the hearing of JTI's challenge here to the new legislation.

The State also wanted the CJEU to decide, in the event of it finding the directive invalid, whether member states derive the competence to enact plain packaging legislation from the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU).

In the Commercial Court today, Mr Justice Brian Cregan rejected the State's application saying there was already a reference to the CJEU in being from the courts of England and Wales on the same issue of validity of the directive.