The number of smokers in Ireland fell by 70,000 last year, the biggest annual drop since 2009, the HSE has announced.

According to its National Tobacco Control Office, which has monitored national smoking prevalence every month since 2003, smoking prevalence in people aged 15 and older was 19.5% in 2014, compared to 21.5% in 2013.

In 2003, 28% of people over the age of 15 smoked.

"The drop of two percentage points in 2014 is the largest annual drop in prevalence recorded since 2009, and shows that the comprehensive range of tobacco control measures implemented in Ireland are working," commented the HSE's national tobacco lead, Dave Molloy.

Meanwhile, the HSE's QUIT Team service is already proving very popular this year. Almost 49,000 visits to the QUIT.ie website were recorded during January alone, while over 750 smokers called the QUIT helpline. Almost 5,000 QUITkits were also ordered during that month.

Mr Molloy said that Ireland has ‘shown great leadership in tobacco control', from banning smoking in all workplaces to upcoming plans to introduce plain packaging. However, while these changes are welcome, ‘there are still over 700,000 smokers in Ireland'.

"We see 5,200 tobacco-related deaths annually - that's 15 deaths every day, and 100 families bereaved every week," he pointed out.

Responding to the latest figures, the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) highlighted the fact that this is the first time the smoking rate has gone below the 20% barrier. However it expressed concern about the high rate of smoking among people on low incomes. For example, the smoking rate among homeless people was 90% in 2013 and among Travellers, it was 52% in 2010.

"We know that people from poorer communities are more likely to smoke and that smoking accounts for half the gap in life expectancy between a rich person and a poor person. Smoking has been identified as the single biggest cause of inequality in death rates. Therefore, when we see that the smoking rate is still much higher in disadvantaged areas, it indicates to us that more needs to be done to help people quit," commented Kathleen O'Meara of the ICS.

Ireland has set a target of being effectively smoke-free - less than 5% prevalence - by 2025. According to Ms O'Meara, if 2025 is to be a historic year, ‘the Government needs to increase resources in local communities that will support smokers to quit'.

For help quitting, click here, freephone 1800 201 203 or freetext QUIT to 50100.