I sometimes wonder if this Government has the ability not to make a mess of everything. This Bill should be the most uncontroversial legislation to come before this House because there is political unanimity that children should not have access to vaping products, that there should be strong penalties for those who allow children access to such products, and that we should completely ban products that are clearly designed to appeal to children. That is the Bill that should have come before this House. Such robust provisions are required and there would have been political unanimity on them. Of course, as always, Government has made a mess of it by adding a provision that will only damage law-abiding adults, that is, the ban on the use of flavours in vapes. There is a point that needs to be recognised. I know a lot of people just do not like vaping and they are entitled to that view but, for many people, there has never been a more successful route away from smoking. The figures back that up. Between 2004 and 2019, the number of smokers in this State has reduced drastically. There are a number of different reasons for that but one has been the evolution of vaping products. Some people will say that vaping products are dangerous themselves but nobody will convince me that they are more dangerous than smoking. It is therefore the least worst option for many people. What the Government is now doing in suggesting a ban on all non-tobacco-flavoured vaping products could be one of the only measures that any government has brought forward that actually reverses the trend of reducing smoking rates that we have seen. I agree with a huge part, probably 90%, of this Bill. I believe that every sane adult in the country will support those measures. I refer to the mechanisms to ensure that children do not have access to nicotine products. The Minister of State has my full support on those. She should bank that and move forward in a united and cohesive way so that would be locked in. She should drop the mechanism that is clearly going to be divisive, that will lead to frustration and that will act to deter people from moving away from smoking or, in some cases, as a rationale to move back to smoking. It is time for Government to stop making a mess of things. It should not make a mess of legislation that should have the full support not only of this House but of every rational adult in the State.

Sentiment score: 0.04