I welcome the Bill. I have raised the issue with the Minister of State on a number of occasions. I was in Arklow this morning. I met with the student councils of three second level school: Arklow CBS, Glenart College and St. Mary's. I allowed the students to ask any questions they wanted to ask. One of the early questions that was asked was what the Government was doing to protect young people against tobacco and vaping credits. This is not the first time I have been asked this by a young person. Young people have been asking about this for a number of years because they can see it among their peer groups. They can see how they are being targeted and exploited, in many cases by the big tobacco companies of the past, which have taken over the nicotine inhaling device companies. Even though the sale to under-18s was banned, the Department’s own inspections in the first two years after the ban found that 20% of retail outlets were still found to be selling to those under the age of 18. We know there are still retailers who will try at every opportunity to get around this to be able to sell this product to young people. With other harmful products that are sold to young people, we take much stronger action. If a bar had a reputation for selling alcohol to young people, the Garda could object to its licence, and it potentially faced closure. If we are in a situation where a restaurant or somewhere that is preparing food does not take food safety particularly seriously, and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland inspectors go in, it could face closure. I would like the criminal enforcement within this Bill to be a lot stronger. It should not be a case of a fine or imprisonment where we see repeat offences. We should be moving towards guaranteeing that somebody who sells on a regular basis should face a custodial sentence. However, we need to go further. It is about hitting these premises in their pockets. The authority should be there to force the closure of some of these premises that breach the rules, whether it is selling to under-18s, or if they breach any of these marketing rules, which we welcome. I do not doubt that for some of those who are smoking, as a device to help with the cessation of smoking, it is helpful. That raises the question: why not make it available on prescription? In all other cases where we talk about something to help somebody come off an addiction or whatever, we will make things available on prescription. It is still far too easy for young people to access what is incredibly dangerous. I welcome this Bill. I know the Minister of State has worked really hard on it. I know I have been critical about the pace at which this has been moving but I know she is determined to introduce it. However, the evidence is there that there are still people who are avoiding the law in this regard and I do not think the consequences are strong enough within this legislation. What I would like the Minister of State is to consider doing is that on Committee Stage, particularly where repeat offenders are convicted, we would see a stronger requirement of prison, quite frankly, and further, that we move to a situation where we can provide for the forced closure of these premises. It strikes me as bizarre that you can close a pub, yet you cannot close one of these shops for pushing these really dangerous products on young people. We do not know yet, other than some of the early evidence from listening to consultants working in the area, the impact it is having on young people's chests, lungs and hearts. A lot of that is going to manifest itself down the line. I would also say that in any of the process around this discussion, and I know the Minister of State is very committed to it, it is always important to engage with young people themselves, and to talk to Comhairle na nÓg, the National Youth Council and the Irish Second-Level Students' Union. The Minister of State and I know that every single young persons' organisation and youth group engaged with this project wants to see this legislation brought in as quickly as possible and wants it to be tough. I will be supporting it but I would ask the Minister of State, on Committee Stage, to try to strengthen some of those provisions.

Sentiment score: 0.10