I welcome the opportunity to speak on this legislation on vapes. For too long, we have allowed a wild west situation to arise because of a simple lack of regulation. We all want to see a reduction in smoking rates but we also want to see proper and real regulations on vaping. For too long, mixed retail units selling vapes have been popping up in every town and village across our State. As I have said in the House before, if you walk through Clondalkin village, you will see kids in their school uniforms going into these shops and buying vapes. Kids are attracted to the bright advertising and the fancy lights and go in as they walk by. I welcome the fact that the legislation before us today seeks to address advertising. This Bill should also regulate the names of flavours. There is no argument about that at all. I will point out that there is a difference between these mixed retail units that are selling vapes and the vape-only shops. At least the vape-only shops self-regulate and have experience in age verification. I can see in my own area that there is no age verification in these mixed retail units. As I have said, young kids in school uniforms are able to get vapes. At least those shops you see in the bottom of Tesco or in booths operate some sort of self-regulation. According to research I have here, there are 8,500 adult vapers in Dublin Mid-West. Of those, 7,000 were previously smokers. That is 7,000 fewer smokers than there were before. This legislation on flavours will only push those 7,000 vapers back into smoking. There are people in my own circle of friends and family who no longer smoke but vape. As I would say if they were here in front of me, if I had a choice, I would rather they did neither, but they are adults and are able to make their own decisions. To limit the flavours to tobacco only simply will not work. It risks pushing adults back into smoking. It could also create an illegal black market that organised criminals will exploit for their own gain. It has not worked in other jurisdictions. As I have said, I do not have an issue with restricting the fancy names of flavours but banning flavours is a step too far. The range of flavours should be limited to a small number of standard flavours, which should purely fit under descriptive names. As was said by Deputy Cullinane, this was done in New Zealand where the government limited it to seven flavours. Sinn Féin is open to limiting it to less than that if that is what the Minister of State wants, but we cannot just go into this legislation focused on tobacco only. I am glad that the Government included Sinn Féin's suggestion to prohibit the sale of nicotine consumption products, such as pouches, to those under 18. It is something that we have raised numerous times. We also have to make sure that this legislation is robust enough so that any other new tobacco product that comes online can be included in it. I also ask the Minister of State to reconsider the reduction of flavours for vapes.

Sentiment score: 0.05