This question recently came from various readers (I guess that is why she is called ‘nicotine addict’), and here I will try to answer it … in short, tobacco is legal everywhere, and chewing tobacco is legal in Northern Ireland, but imports to the Republic of Ireland are prohibited. Whether this is actually monitored may be another question, but chewing tobacco in public is not done in Ireland. By the way, both ways of getting a nicotine fix are not included in the smoking ban, since the tobacco is not really lit.
Is tobacco legal in Ireland?
Absolutely: there is no law that prevents you from taking good tobacco, probably followed by a very explosive sneeze. Smokeless snuff for nasal use is also not subject to the smoking ban.
You can read opposing views on this when scouring the web, often with lurid descriptions of “a friend of a colleague who knew someone” jailed and accosted in the water for inhaling it. They are all rubbish. The only provision to be observed is that the sale of tobacco in Ireland must comply with the packaging laws (health warning).
Don’t believe me. Well, Peterson from Dublin does a good tobacco trade, and they should know …
Is it legal to chew tobacco in Ireland?
This is more difficult to answer… since, by law, you could run into problems. The Public Health (Tobacco) Act 2002 is quite clear: 38. (2) It will be an offense for a person to manufacture, import, supply, sell, or invite a bid to purchase an oral smokeless tobacco product. And chewing tobacco is an oral smokeless tobacco product, period. Oh, thanks for asking – nicotine gum is not like that, as it is not produced directly from tobacco.
Again, many comments on the web show the ‘EU insanity’ of this, which is completely incorrect: chewing tobacco is legal in the UK (it is still a member state, although the specter of Brexit is looming), and retailers like Black Swan Shoppe offer it freely. It can also be found in specialty stores in Northern Ireland.
And here the problem begins: Irish law prohibits the importation of chewing tobacco. Does that mean commercial importation or casual importation for your own use? When in doubt, both. That said, a bag of chewing tobacco in your pocket will likely go unnoticed, especially since it could also be used as pipe tobacco. It is far from my part to suggest that you must break the law (if applicable) by bringing your own chewing tobacco to the Republic of Ireland, but I can imagine very few circumstances where this could cause a problem.
But, and this is just friendly advice, be prepared for some raised eyebrows and even comments if you start chewing tobacco, followed by the inevitable spit. This is simply not done, at least not in courteous company and full view.
And a word about customs …
Note that we are talking about tobacco products here anyway, and these would be subject to Irish customs regulations.
There are bonuses for duty-free products from non-EU countries. The maximum quantities of tobacco products that can be imported without incurring duties and taxes are
- 200 cigarettes or
- 100 cigarettes or
- 50 cigarettes or
- 250 grams of tobacco;
Note the “or” in the list, definitely not the “and” here!
For the transfer of goods within the EU, a private citizen can generally import as much as would still qualify for ‘personal use’, obviously there are no container loads, but (for example) 800 cigarettes that have already been taxed in another country of the EU should generally not pose a problem.
