The Government is losing €1.5m per day to the illegal tobacco trade, new figures have claimed.
The statistics released by the Irish Tobacco Manufacturers Advisory Committee show that criminals are making over €600,000 every day from illegal tobacco sales in Ireland.
The figures, compiled from the most recent CSO and EU statistics, show that over 1.6 billion of the cigarettes smoked in Ireland this year will not have had any duty paid in the country.
This means a loss to the economy of over €700m by the end of the year, the group claims.
