I welcome the opportunity to speak on this positive legislation. Well done to the Minister of State for leading it in her Department. She has hit the ground running. I will make a few points. First, regulating nicotine products is essential. This is reminiscent of the time of the smoking ban, led at the time by the then Minister for Health and current Taoiseach. There were protests at that time. It could have been around the time of the 2009 local elections in which I was a candidate. The Minister of State may have been a candidate then as well. It was hot on the doors and it became apparent very quickly that it was a popular measure. People realised they could go to their coffee spot, restaurant or bar and have an enjoyable evening without going home reeking of tobacco for the next few days and having to fling their jacket on the clothes line to freshen it up again. That was a positive measure. Of course, products have changed utterly since then. I only recently became aware of nicotine pouches; maybe I have been living in a cave. I thought they were little packets of loose tobacco, but they are not. A lot of kids are bringing them into schools, certainly at secondary level. The sooner we curb that, the better. I am glad there are some strict age restrictions built into this legislation. That is certainly a good thing. One issue I mentioned privately to the Minister of State over recent months is how some of these products are sold on the high street in mixed retail units. When I am out and about with my children, they are drawn to the American candy stores. While there are American candy, phone cases and phone chargers in those stores, there is also a whole wall of vape juices, vapes and disposable vapes. It is immoral to have those positioned alongside sweets and candy, which are very much marketed for young people, particularly candy that has come from overseas intended to lure children into the shop in the first place. I know this measure is in the legislation. The sooner it is prohibited, the better. Some people who work in the retail sphere say that limiting flavours should not happen, but I think it should. It has become a novel thing. Tobacco was tobacco for centuries. I think it was Sir Walter Raleigh who brought it to these shores, although I am open to correction in that regard. It has been the same product for years. The only difference is how it was rolled into cigarettes or sold over generations. Vapes have changed utterly in the past seven or eight years, however. People first told us they were a wonderful way to wean smokers of cigarettes, but they very quickly took over, with all these liquids and fruit-flavoured vapes. The vape off them is vile. While I began by saying that people cannot smoke in public places, there is no cut and dried rule when it comes to vaping in public spaces. I get the train to the Dáil every week. People cannot vape on the train because Iarnród Éireann has rules around it. In other spaces, however, people can vape. I recently received an email from a constituent who was shocked to see people vaping at a bingo event. They presumed it all came under the one Act but it does not. We need to go further in this regard. I do not believe such a provision is in this legislation. We need to go further and ban vaping in public spaces. It is quite disgusting for people to have a plume of awful, rotten vape blown across their face just as they are about to tuck into a lovely meal. It is passive so it cannot be avoided. People slugging drinks all night can be avoided, but a vape cannot be avoided and it goes into people’s lungs. Some of the retailers have also made the point that counterfeit vape juices are being sold online. They are being brought over the Border and coming from other jurisdictions. Retailers are finding it quite difficult. They are willing to adhere to the laws that are coming down the tracks but they make the point that people occasionally call to their shops and tell retailers they have the product they need, but they must pay cash for it. We need to watch that sphere, as well as the online space. We need to watch how these products come in from overseas in larger quantities than they should. Our Customs and Excise people need to be more watchful of that. In my remaining time, I will raise another issue that I think falls within the remit of this debate. I hope the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will allow it. The Minister of State and I have had many chats about foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, FASD, in the past. It is also something we should be concerned about from a public health point of view. At the moment, all of the good people working with FASD Ireland, which happens to be headquartered in my constituency of Clare, are in Canada, where there is a world conference. Ireland is an outlier nation because we are one of the few nations that does not recognise FASD. Yet, there is a belief among practitioners and people who are experts in the field of FASD that Ireland could be among the most prevalent nations for this particular disorder. Of course, it is linked to the consumption of alcohol at the time a mother is pregnant. We thought it was just linear like that but now it has been proven scientifically that if the male is also consuming alcohol at the time of egg fertilisation and sexual intercourse, it can impact how the embryo develops from its early stage. It is something we need to recognise as a disability. We continue to be outliers in this country. I hope we can change the status quo in that regard. It is a little taboo because by diagnosing a child, adolescent or adult with FASD, we are basically saying that, at a certain time, the mother or father were on the bottle and, as a consequence, the child now has FASD. It is taboo but as a nation we have to be more mature about alcohol and many other issues. We need to own up to it. I thank the Minister of State for everything she is doing. Hopefully, some of my suggestions can be taken on board tonight.

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