It is not often in this House you feel like you are making any progress at all, but I wish to congratulate the Minister of State on bringing forward this Bill. I know it is something which she and many of us in Fianna Fáil have been working on for some time. I should probably also note the support of the former Minister, Stephen Donnelly, when he was in the House. In August 2023, a number of people in the local Tidy Towns group in my area contacted me reporting the proliferation of these disposable or single-use vapes. They were seeing them increasingly outside of betting shops and schools, littering the village. They had a genuine question: what do we do with them? It prompted a question that I asked of many local authorities around the country, namely, what are the local authorities doing with these vapes? What emerged was that a new product that was coming onto the market was having a significant impact on our environment, public domain and, importantly, the health of people. At the time, many people were quite rightly reluctant to have a ban on vaping because it plays a role in reducing people’s dependence on tobacco. We should say that tobacco is a far more dangerous substance than the nicotine products, although it is hard to say that definitively because we do not fully know the make-up of many of the vaping products. We know how dangerous tobacco is, however. Of course, vaping has a role to play in assisting people to come off an addiction to tobacco. It is important to say that, with this Bill, we are not removing vaping as a mechanism of supporting people to come off a tobacco addiction. Rather, we are ensuring that, in doing that, they are using products that are sustainable, do not have an impact on our environment and are not accessible, advertised or attractive to children. It is a reasonable and sensible step. I was taken aback by the number of people who contacted me from different parts of the country when I made the suggestion, and there were many of us who made the suggestion at the time. This is a real common-sense proposal. I thank the Minister of State for bringing forward this legislation. I know legislation in this area can be difficult and tricky. There are European elements to it as well, so I know it has taken some time and been tricky but it is great to be at this Stage. I acknowledge all those people who, early on, raised the issue with me because it has made a difference and it has changed the legislation here in the House. I also acknowledge that it was not done alone. Obviously, the tax placed on the e-liquid for vaping was another measure. The additional licence on vaping shops was another measure, which is worth revisiting. Many of those vaping shops will disagree with me, but we should consider whether we need to increase that charge on vaping shops. In all of the time we had tobacco products, in Ireland in any case, there were very few shops that exclusively sold tobacco. They often sold papers, newspapers, milk and all sorts of other stuff. We now have an emergence of vaping shops, and it is attractive for young people to gather at those places. Of course, those places do not mind young people gathering at those locations because they are selling their products. We need more vigilance from parents. It is a difficult thing to do. I am a parent of teenagers. It is a difficult thing to do. More vigilance from parents, schools and the local authorities is needed. While we can bring in measures to ban single-use vapes, there is no doubt the black market will continue to provide these products. We should be trying to work with the local authority teams right across the country to determine whether they continue to see these products in the waste that is collected on our streets. I acknowledge the huge work that is being done. The legislation will introduce a prohibition of point of sale displays and advertising, with an exemption for retailers who only or primarily sell these products. For gambling and betting environments, we have very strict standards on advertising and what can be seen in the window and so on. There will probably be more room, once we get this legislation over the line, to return to that point. I would like to see much more limits put on the advertising of those dedicated vaping shops. I know we will introduce restrictions on colours and imagery for nicotine-inhaling products and their packaging. There will also be restrictions on devices resembling or functioning as other products, such as toys or games, which aim to prohibit flavour. I have seen in the drugs area that prohibition does not necessarily work. A lot of people will say that we should just get rid of vaping and it will be gone. In my view, that will not work. These types of measures will work, however. They are sensible and show that the Government is listening. They show that Ministers are working hard and working with us on the backbenches. We appreciate that and we encourage them to keep going.

Sentiment score: 0.07