I certainly welcome this legislation. Vaping is both a public health and an environmental scourge. Many Tidy Towns groups are insisting that we get rid of these disposable vapes and the litter associated with them as quickly as possible. I want to focus on the public health elements of this legislation. Enforcement is critical and that we ensure when we introduce this legislation that we can enforce it. I hope there will be learnings from the experience in the United States where the US Food and Drug Administration has tried to address this issue, but instead has been dealt a blow because of a wave of unregulated products arriving in from China. I want to know that when the legislation is introduced that there will be significant levels of enforcement. My concern around that relates to the continued sale of nicotine inhaling products to young people. I asked a parliamentary question last month about the number of inspections that are taking place and the number of test purchases where a nicotine inhaling product was sold to a child. In 2024, there were only 223 inspections of which 40 were where a product was sold to a child. So far to the end of October this year, of 224 inspections 51 were found to be selling to children. In other words, at present 20% of vape shops investigated - remember it is only the ones that have been investigated - are already flouting the law specifically regarding sale to children. There are not enough inspections taking place. I want to hear from the Minister of State about how we are going to ensure that this legislation and the previous legislation will be enforced. The industry is already fighting back on this. It is organising a campaign and, quite frankly, it is spreading information. The industry representative bodies need to be held to account. They need to tell us why 20% of their members are continuing to sell these products to children. From a World Health Organization report published in October of this year, we know that Ireland has the fifth highest rate of e-cigarette use among 85 countries. It was discovered that 11.2% of the population vaped last year. Quite frighteningly, it is now the case that, on average, children are nine times more likely to vape than adults. One of the concerns I have is that many schools and youth groups have come to me and talked about young people and children who have never smoked taking up vaping. As the Minister of State will know, I raised this in the Seanad before coming in here. I really worry that this issue is not being taken sufficiently seriously. I ask the Minister of State to consider taking amendments on Committee Stage with regard to banning flavourings and colours and restricting advertising. We have been talking about introducing this legislation for far too long. This Bill is before the House. I ask the Department to bring forward the necessary amendments on Committee Stage. I am quite certain they would get cross-party support. I cannot stress enough how serious this issue is. It is a real public health emergency. If you talk to anybody engaged in health in this space, they will tell you they want this action taken quickly and they want enforcement. I know the Minister of State is quite determined when she gets her teeth into something. I ask her to take on board the proposal for amendments on Committee Stage and to respond as to how this legislation will be enforced.

Sentiment score: 0.05