I welcome this Bill. It is necessary and it is very important that we, as the Legislature, address the environmental impacts of disposable vapes. They are everywhere. Everybody knows that. They see them, particularly in town centres. They are even seen next to bins. They somehow do not seem to find their way into the bins but are littered around them. Those horrible stickers are put onto the bins as well. I welcome any move to ban disposable vapes. That is a good thing. However, I also think this Bill misses the point. When we are legislating in relation to vapes, why are we not legislating to deal with the fact that nicotine is being distributed widely? It is a corrosive, addictive and carcinogenic product and we are not doing anything to stop it from being distributed. That is the real missed opportunity. We should be changing the word "tobacco" to "nicotine" in the Public Health (Tobacco) Acts because any product that promotes or delivers nicotine is bad for the population. The same controls that apply to cigarettes should apply to vapes at the very minimum. Not only is this a huge growth industry, as evidenced by the proliferation of shops throughout our towns and villages around the country, but people are now starting vaping without using cigarettes first and we do not know what harm it is doing to them. As other contributors have mentioned, what is worse than that is the number of children who are vaping. Notwithstanding laws that might be in place, we know that lots and lots of children are doing this and that flavoured vapes are specifically targeted at those children. This Bill does nothing to address that either. While I welcome the Bill, there is a real missed opportunity to address the actual public health issues that arise from the proliferation of vapes in Ireland. An opportunity has also been missed in not addressing nicotine and the targeting of these products. I do not doubt that the industry would deny children are being targeted, but that is what the flavours are for. Adults may indulge in them, but they are primarily aimed at children. I will make some other comments about the Bill. In section 9, it creates a criminal offence of selling these products. What astonishes me about that is that nothing appears to have been learned from the many years of application of the Finance Acts in relation to, for example, the sale of tobacco products that have not had tax paid on them and do not have the tax stamp on them. The terminology used in the Finance Acts refers to selling or keeping for sale. The danger with section 9(1) is that it makes an offence of selling these products. It should be an offence to sell them, to keep them for sale or to plan to sell them, where there is evidence to support that. Why allow an out for potential defendants where they are not caught in the act of selling even though they might have a back room full of these products? That does not mean they should not be liable to prosecution under section 9. Section 17 provides for the HSE to be able to recoup its expenses. This is something I associate much more with regulatory offences. That provision should not be there. There are provisions relating to category A and B fines built into the penalties provisions of the Bill. If the Minister of State feels greater powers are needed, the fines courts may impose should be increased. The recouping of expenses by the prosecutor, which would be the HSE in this case, is more common in regulatory or civil offences than in criminal offences. This is a criminal offence. It should be recognised as such and prosecuted as such, with appropriate penalties, fines and custodial sentences, where appropriate. The recouping of expenses is cumbersome and blunt and does not reflect the ability of the offender to pay. Section 18 proposes to change section 10 of the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act 1851 with regard to the statute of limitations on the prosecution of offences. This is now six months but the Bill would extend that to 12. Will the Minister of State give us a justification for that provision? Surely six months is plenty of time for the HSE or any other prosecutorial authority to get its act together and bring a prosecution. It is a summary matter. Let us not make it more punitive than it needs to be or allow the authorities not to have to get their act together.

Sentiment score: -0.08