380. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the number of persons successfully prosecuted for tobacco and or cigarette smuggling in 2024, 2025 and to date in 2026, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14789/26]

381. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the number of summary and indictable convictions secured in 2024, 2025, and to date in 2026, for the evasion of tobacco excise duty and illegal selling of illicit tobacco, in addition to the total money collected in these years from associated fines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14790/26]

382. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the resources he is allocating to Revenue; the new or improved enforcement actions being taken to combat illicit tobacco smuggling; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14791/26]

383. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance how effective the new regulations introduced in November 2025 that strengthen rules relating to the amount of duty-paid tobacco products an individual can bring into Ireland from another European Union (EU) Member State have been in reducing the number of non-Irish duty paid cigarettes in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14792/26]

Simon Harris, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance: I propose to take Questions Nos. 380 to 383, inclusive, together.

I am assured by Revenue of its commitment to targeting cigarette and tobacco smuggling, and prosecuting those involved.

Revenue has provided me with a table outlining the number of summary and indictable convictions as a result of prosecutions together with the value of fines imposed for both the smuggling/evasion of excise duty as well as illegal selling of tobacco and cigarettes for the period 2024-2026 inclusive.

*as of 31/01/2026

The 2026 resource allocation for Revenue is 7,273 full time equivalents.

There are over 900 staff assigned across the ports, airports and mail centres as well as national profiling and risk assessment units and inland teams, dedicated to the enforcement of and ensuring the protection and integrity of customs controls in relation to all excisable products.

In addition to the above, Revenue utilises 22 detector dog teams deployed at airports, ports, mail centres nationwide and in freight forwarding premises. Revenue’s detector dogs assist in screening passengers or postal packages, searching warehouses, commercial and private premises, all manner of vehicles, freight consignments, and air or sea passenger baggage. They also provide regular support for nationally coordinated operations, many of which are carried out on a joint multi-agency basis.

The Revenue detector dogs play a vital role in Revenue’s mission to combat illicit tobacco activities, and they are an integral part of Revenue’s broader enforcement strategy together with intelligence gathering and scan technology. In 2025, Revenue procured in total five baggage X-ray systems to be deployed at Dublin Airport, Shannon Airport, Kerry Airport and Cork Airport. Revenue also procured another handheld X-ray system bringing its current capacity of handheld scanners to eight. In addition to this, as part of the redevelopment of Rosslare Europort, a new high energy X-ray gantry system was deployed in October 2025. This is the first high energy X-ray gantry system to be deployed in the State and will be used to scan containerised freight and vehicles as required.

Revenue has also sought and received funding to procure a specialised backscatter van in 2026. This is in addition to the current backscatter van based in Dublin Port. A backscatter van is a low power X-ray scanner mounted in a standard van that is used to scan vehicles, trailers and other light vehicles.

While Revenue’s role is the administration of tax law, effective enforcement of tobacco duties supports Ireland’s public-health aims by limiting access to untaxed and cheap tobacco. This strengthens the impact of Ireland’s broader tobacco-control measures.

New regulations which strengthen the controls relating to the amount of duty-paid tobacco products an individual can bring into Ireland from another EU Member State were introduced on 9 December 2025. These new rules help to ensure that Excise Duty reliefs for personal use are not abused.

EU law sets out the various factors to be considered in determining whether tobacco products brought into the State are for an individual’s own use, including indicative quantities, as follows:

• 800 cigarettes
• 400 cigarillos
• 200 cigars
• 1 kilogram of other tobacco products (such as roll-your-own tobacco.

Under the new regulations, where an individual brings in duty-paid tobacco products in excess of these quantities, this will be taken as clear evidence that the goods are not for personal use and the full quantity of goods will be seized. The individual may also be prosecuted. In the two-month period following the introduction of the new tobacco regulations, Revenue officers have seized 838k duty paid cigarettes and 63kgs of tobacco from a total of 477 individuals.

Abuse of this Excise Duty relief undermines the effectiveness of the tobacco tax, which is a key aspect of the Government’s strategy to disincentivise smoking, which remains Ireland’s leading cause of preventable death. The new regulations enable the tobacco tax to operate more effectively, which better supports the public health objective of the tax.