The price of twenty cigarettes will go up by 50 cent at midnight after the Dáil gave its approval tonight.

Sinn Féin and the triple-A-PBP opposed the measure, but did not call a formal vote.

It is the only Budget matter being put to a vote in the house tonight.

Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Mick Barry says the rising cost of cigarettes is only adding to the black market: “By 2014 it had risen again to 23% so nearly a quarter of all tobacco products in the state in 2014 were bought on the black market.

“I think the year on year tax increases is a significant factor on that.”