I welcome this Bill, which is to protect public health. Regulating access to e-cigarettes and nicotine products is essential. There is evidence on the risk of nicotine pouches - nicotine addiction, gum problems, mouth ulcers, dry mouth and hiccups, nausea and stomach problems, and nicotine poisoning. When we look at the growth in the market, the sales of nicotine pouches by P.J. Carroll and Co. grew by 480% between 2023 and 2024. That is 6 million to 29 million units for VELO brand pouches. That is a 480% increase in just one year. At European level, the first year of monitoring by the EU Monitor was 2018. It identified 292 million units sold. By 2021 it was 6.8 billion units of nicotine pouches - a 2,000% increase, and it has obviously increased dramatically since this then. This Bill is a measured and necessary response to a market that has changed faster than our laws. It proposes to ban the sale of nicotine pouches to under-18s; restrict the advertising display of nicotine-inhaling products in retail units; tighten rules on colours and imagery on devices and packaging; prohibit products that resemble toys or games; and limit flavour descriptors, with flavours in nicotine-inhaling products to be limited to tobacco. These are sensible steps aimed at one clear goal: making addictive nicotine products less visible, less attractive and less accessible to children and young people. We should also see the Bill as part of a wider direction of travel. In Ireland it sits alongside the Public Health (Single-Use Vapes) Bill 2025, which is already moving through the Oireachtas, and is intended to ban the sale of disposable vapes. Together, these measures represent a more coherent public health approach, one that recognises both the health harms of nicotine addiction and the very deliberate ways in which novel products are marketed to young people. As we are not acting in isolation, on 21 April 2026 the UK's Tobacco and Vapes Bill cleared Parliament. That legislation includes a so-called smoke-free generation measure preventing the sale of tobacco to people born on or after 1 January 2009, while also strengthening the regulation of vapes and other nicotine products. That Bill represents a significant moment and it shows that these questions are now being confronted across these islands with greater seriousness and urgency. At European level, the direction of travel is the same. On 1 April 2026, the European Commission published its evaluation of the EU tobacco control framework, covering both the tobacco products directive and the tobacco advertising directive. The Commission's conclusion was twofold: first, that EU tobacco legislation has made a real contribution to reducing smoking and protecting public health; and, second, that the current framework is no longer fully keeping pace with a rapidly changing market, particularly considering the growth of novel tobacco and nicotine products and their appeal among younger consumers. The message from Brussels is clear. The framework needs to be updated, and a further review of the EU rules is now firmly on the horizon. That matters for Ireland because we are not simply responding to a domestic challenge. We are legislating in step with a broader European reassessment of how tobacco and nicotine products should be regulated in the years ahead. From 1 July to 31 December 2026, Ireland will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. That gives us a real opportunity not just to participate in the associated conversation but also to shape it and put child protection, prevention, product regulation and public health ambition at the centre of the European agenda. Ireland has often been at its best when prepared to lead on public health rather than wait for others. Our Presidency offers the chance to re-establish this country as a European global leader in tobacco control and to show that strong regulation, evidence-based policy and the protection of the next generation are not obstacles to progress but part of what responsible leadership looks like. This Bill matters not only because of what it does today but also because of the signal it sends about Ireland. We want to be ambitious in public health, serious about prevention and determined to protect the next generation from addiction.

Sentiment score: 0.15