The majority of retailers are not asking young people for identification before selling them cigarettes, according to new research.
A survey conducted for the Office of Tobacco Control (OTC) and published yesterday found 16 per cent of 12 to 17 year olds in the State are now smoking and of those who do smoke, 92 per cent of them were not asked for identification the last time they bought cigarettes.
It is illegal to sell cigarettes to anyone under the age of 18.
The research confirmed that smoking among family and friends has a strong impact on whether young people take up the habit, with 75 per cent of young people who smoke saying they lived in a household where another person smoked. Among non-smokers, only 45 per cent of them had a family member smoking.
And 92 per cent of 8 to 17-year- olds who smoked have a friend who smokes, while only 15 per cent of the children who did not smoke had friends who smoked.
Asked where they got their first cigarettes, 65 per cent said they got them from friends, 23 per cent from shops, 15 per cent from siblings, 15 per cent from parents/guardians, and 7 per cent from vending machines. Some got their first cigarettes from more than one source.
The average number of cigarettes smoked by 8 to 17-year-olds was just short of 10 a day and most buy 10-packs.
The survey also revealed that some young people are already finding it difficult to quit. Some 32 per cent of 12 to 15-year-old and 38 per cent of 16 to 17-year-old smokers said they have tried to give up had failed.
The study also found that 16 to 17-year-olds spent on average €122 in the week before the survey, while 12 to 15-year-olds spent €61.60 and 8 to 11-year-olds spent €33.70.
Prof Sheila Greene, director of the Children's Research Centre at Trinity College, said: "For the older generations who remember childhood as a period of chronic lack of money, the findings about weekly expenditure of children are fascinating and an obviously essential aspect of the new climate of Celtic Tiger Ireland. The 16 and 17-year-olds were spending €122 per week and astonishingly, those amongst them who smoked were spending almost an additional €80 a week."
Children from lower income backgrounds are currently spending three times as much on cigarettes as children from higher income backgrounds, the report added.
It also pointed out that alcohol and cigarettes are the highest expenditure items for children from lower income backgrounds. Children from higher income families spent most on clothes, mobile phones, alcohol, fast food and cigarettes, in that order.
Some 77 per cent of all 10-pack smokers said they were unlikely to continue smoking if there was a 100 per cent increase in the price of cigarettes.
The survey was conducted among a nationally representative sample of 1,479 people aged 8-17 years. No child under-12 was found to be a smoker. When over- 18s were surveyed separately some 60 per cent of them said they believed the Government was not doing enough to tackle the illegal sale of cigarettes to young people. Over half of all those surveyed said they had started smoking before the age of 16.
The Minister for Health, Mary Harney, said she would be making an announcement soon on the banning of 10-packs of cigarettes. The ban was due to start in October but was delayed to give tobacco companies more time to withdraw stocks.
The OTC has called for a €2 increase in the price of cigarettes in next week's budget. Ms Harney said cigarettes were now cheaper in Northern Ireland and she felt sure the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, would be mindful of that as he devised his budget.
"Clearly the more expensive cigarettes are the better as far as the health system is concerned . . . cigarettes cost more than they bring in," she said.