2026-01-13

I will try to pick up where I left off. I was commending the recommendations of Meath Comhairle na nÓg. In the realm of drugs of addiction, alcohol, vaping, etc., the feedback from that and other youth groups around the country is that education is key. They want to know about the harms of different products on the market. I sat in on the Joint Committee on Drugs Use a couple of weeks before Christmas. I am not a member of that committee but there was a very insightful and encouraging presentation by Ms Leanne Maher, a drug education worker with Canal Communities regional addiction service in Dublin 8. She gave the example of an escape rooms project funded from its own small budget. It is a youth initiative whereby there are four rooms covering cannabis, vaping, nitrous oxide and alcohol. Young people can complete a survey before going into the rooms and complete another on coming out. Then there is a debriefing session. After visiting the rooms, the learnings of the young people were doubled and in some cases tripled. That validates the young people's desire to know more about the possible benefits of products and, more important, the harms. When I left off previously, I was going through the side effects of the ingredients in all vaping products, not just the disposable vapes we are primarily concerned with. I will raise this as a point of learning and as something for us to take note of in the vaping space in general. Let us discuss some of the ingredients. Propylene glycol is commonly known as anti-freeze. We would put it into the engine of the car. Would we dream of putting it into something we might inhale? It is there. There are formaldehyde and benzene, products with demonstrable cancer risks. There are heavy metals, including lead and nickel. The impacts of nickel include asthma, dermatitis, rhinitis, nausea and vomiting, and headaches; prolonged exposure can increase the risk of cancer. Lead contributes to behavioural and learning problems, hearing problems, fatigue and loss of appetite. We are getting a merger and possible confusion whereby what can be deemed to be behavioural issues for young people become completely intertwined with known side effects of products. It is important to get right what this Bill is attempting to do and to ensure, particularly on Committee Stage, that there is robust scrutiny of it. We need to pay attention to the learnings and reviews that have taken place since June 2025, when the UK carried out a similar exercise. They are at the review stage now. I think everybody received the briefing note from Responsible Vaping Ireland. Two salient points are coming out of that review, the first of which is enforcement. We have to make sure the Health Service Executive, as the agency responsible for enforcement, is adequately resourced around both the inspection and the education sides of things. I suggest the remit of the quit line be extended to include quitting vapes. If the disposable vapes are removed, we know that, despite the age limit on vaping, there will be many young people dealing with physical and psychological withdrawal effects. Where will they go? Another area that will have to be resourced is youth work organisations and the comhairlí na nóg, as well as the well-being teams in our secondary schools. There will be fall-out from this. There are the best of intentions but we have to be prepared and have the safeguards in place. That may involve using nicotine replacement therapy, NRT, which is nicotine replacement without those ancillary chemicals with dangerous side effects I have listed. The other piece will be mental health supports. Apart from peer pressure and maybe wanting to look cool, if there is a mental and emotional health issue underlying use of a vaping product, we have to be ready and have a robust and well-resourced mental health safety net. The key thing arising from today will be to learn from the loopholes identified in the UK, particularly around non-compliant manufacturers who have moved quickly to include charging ports and refill features in their products as a means of circumvention. The other point is delivering effective and enforceable legislation. It will be worth spending time on this. We cannot on the one hand be here debating at budget time the spend on health, be it public health or rehabilitative health, yet not be taking proper measures to ensure our respiratory and circulatory systems and our physical and emotional health are well resourced. This is one of the stepping stones as a preventative measure. Along the way, we have to listen to our young people, including the voices of the members of Comhairle na nÓg, drug rehabilitation teams and community drug and alcohol rehabilitation teams. They have their fingers on the pulse and their ears to the ground. I do not know whether the escape room concept can be funded from a health promotion perspective or through proceeds of crime funding but I was highly impressed. If possible, I ask the Minister of State and her officials to read the transcript of the Committee on Drugs Use. I will get the date and flag it with the Minister of State. I can send the video link to her. It is something I will explore and try to implement in County Meath.

On 2 January, I very happily celebrated 19 years without cigarettes. I did not vape; I do not think there were any vapes at that stage. If there were, they were very new. I was lucky and did not use chewing gum. I relied heavily on licorice all sorts, crisps and anything else I could get my hands on. The important thing is that I managed. Regrettably, I smoked my first cigarette - if my mother was alive she would burst me - when I was 11 years of age, nearly 12, which was not good. I was a very committed and dedicated smoker for a long number of years. One of the things that facilitated me being able to smoke at the young age I was was access to single cigarettes. One could buy a single cigarette. Anyone under the age of 45 listening to this debate would be tearing their hair out but it is true. It was possible and was done. One could buy a single cigarette, or two or three, for 10p each, depending on how much money one had. That is why the Bill is important. I will not allow the Government to overstate the importance of the Bill because it knows what else it should be doing. It is a small step but an important one. It is a move that will be welcomed by every tidy towns organisation the length and breadth of the State because they are tortured by single use vapes. It behoves us, as legislators, to do anything we can to ensure that people do not end up addicted to nicotine. It is a highly addictive substance and we need to keep it away from kids. If we can keep it away from kids and foster a positive environment, we will be on the road to being nicotine free, which is a good step to take. I do not doubt the usefulness of vapes in getting people off cigarettes but some people have switched their addiction to cigarettes to an addiction to vaping. I know a person who is addicted to nicotine chewing gum. Nicotine is a highly addictive substance and the people who finance nicotine addiction are moving much faster than the Government. They are flying ahead. For young people now, it is less about vapes and more about nicotine pouches. I welcome the Bill. It is important to recognise that this is a small step in the right direction. If we are going to ensure that we move quickly in the direction of becoming nicotine free, we need to look at resourcing youth work, resourcing and equipping teachers and making sure that children and young and older people are getting the message at every available opportunity.

Like my colleague, I am a former smoker but I am a vaper. That being said, the Bill has a somewhat piecemeal approach to vaping. We need a comprehensive public health response to vaping and nicotine. This is the third Bill on smoking in the past three years and there is at least another one on the way. Sinn Féin fully supports a ban on single-use vapes. We sought a similar ban for a number of years. A 2024 study by TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland found that one in 20 young people uses nicotine pouches and one in ten has tried them. However, the Bill only targets products that are already being phased out. The Government needs to get ahead of the curve and introduce health legislation that is proactive rather than reactive. The Minister for Health needs to introduce modern and comprehensive legislation on vaping. Single-use and short life vapes are highly wasteful, and contribute to our litter problems and impact on the environment. In 2024, 25 tonnes of e-cigarette and vape devices were collected for recycling in Ireland, equating to over 1.1 million devices. I have no doubt that there was an increase last year. The contents of a disposable vape include plastic, nicotine salts, heavy metals and flammable lithium ion batteries which all leak into our water and soil. Like cigarette butts, e-cigarette waste is not biodegradable even under the most severe conditions. Single-use vapes discarded on our streets eventually break down into microplastics and chemicals that pose a threat to the environment. The biggest issue is that vapes are targeted specifically at our young people. Before 2021, the only widely available disposable vapes were cigarette-like e-cigarettes targeted at those aged over 35 and those trying to give up smoking. The newer disposable vape brands are designed to be far more aesthetically pleasing and sexier looking. They target our younger people and are appealing and trendy. The HSE describes disposable vapes as becoming popular in Ireland, in particular with young people. Some of the most common brands include names like Lost Mary, Elf Bar and Vuse. They all clearly target our young people who may be averse to smoking cigarettes. Vapes lure them in with flavours, colours and names. The HSE has confirmed that children and young people who vape are more likely to be addicted to nicotine, develop mood disorders and find it hard to control their impulses. Sinn Féin wants a comprehensive public health led approach to vaping. It may be less harmful than cigarettes, but that does not mean it is harm free. We are open to better regulations for vaping and in line with tobacco that would include restricted flavourings and packages, especially those targeting our young people. We need to get this policy right. It needs to be balanced so that vaping is not made as expensive as smoking or penalised in the same way. I know a number of people who have spoken about going back to smoking cigarettes because of the impact of the budget. That has had a huge impact. The Bill needs to be part of a wider proactive public health response to vaping and nicotine products.

I too know people who have spoken about going back to cigarette smoking after the last budget. This will be a bit of a trend. I am a vape user and a former smoker. Like most people, I used vaping as a way to get off cigarettes. That is probably more reflective of my age and generation than it would be for any of our younger people. I support the ban on single use vapes contained in the Bill. They are environmentally destructive and wasteful but also have no place in a serious public health framework. However, while I support the intent of the Bill, I also strongly criticise the Government for the approach it has taken overall to vaping and nicotine pouches. The most glaring contradiction in this is the recent budget decision to, in effect, make reusable vaping more expensive than single use vapes. Disposable vapes can now be bought for about €8 and a bottle of vape liquid costs about €11, sometimes a little bit more. The measure in the Bill is entirely counter-productive. If we are serious about discouraging wasteful throwaway products while supporting people in moving away from smoking cigarettes, public policy should not push consumers in the opposite direction. Right now, it is cheaper to buy a product that the Government says it wants to eliminate. That simply makes no sense to me. The Bill is another example of the Government's piecemeal approach to this issue. It is the third time we have had legislation on vaping or smoking in as many years and, most likely, there will be more. Meanwhile, the industry continues to innovate, adapt and work around regulations faster than the State responds. We are always playing catch-up on this issue. We need modern, comprehensive and dynamic legislation that deals with vaping as a whole, not just one narrow issue at a time. I again refer to those nicotine pouches. I want to be clear that protecting children has to be a priority. The targeting of young people through bright colours on almost toy-like packaging is blatant and unacceptable. Sales to minors are still happening but enforcement is weak and illegal products in breach of EU standards are widely available. I will always fully support any measure that meaningfully tackles those practices. However, we have to get the balance right. Vaping should not be as expensive as smoking for somebody who is trying to quite cigarettes, nor should it be more attractive to non-smokers to take up. There is a middle ground. I am open to tighter regulation on flavouring and packaging, particularly where it is clearly designed to appeal to children, but restricting all vapes to tobacco flavour alone is excessive. It is also counter-intuitive because it drives people back to the object they are trying to get away from, namely, the flavour of cigarettes and drives them into unregulated markets. Public health policy must reflect reality - no nicotine. The ideal outcome is that people neither smoke nor vape but until we reach that point, we must ensure that adults who are quitting smoking are not punished financially for making that choice. Banning single-use vapes is absolutely a step forward but without coherent taxation, proper enforcement and comprehensive regulation, it risks being undermined before it has even taken effect. I urge the Minister of State and the Government to move beyond short-term fixes and deliver a joined-up strategy that protects children, ensures smokers can quit and finally gets ahead of this industry, which has been running rings around regulation for far too long.

This Bill represents a piecemeal approach from this Government. It is the third Bill in three years, with another one on the way. That tells its own story. Instead of this Government using forward thinking and having a modern, comprehensive approach, we are left reacting, catching up and legislating bit by bit. Sinn Féin has sought a ban on single-use vapes for years. They are highly wasteful and damaging to the environment. Yet, this Bill will really only target products that are already being phased out, while failing to deal with the wider and growing problem of vaping. The Government needs to introduce modern and comprehensive legislation on vaping instead of piecemeal legislation. It needs to look forward because new trends and products will continue to come on the market. We cannot be left trying to catch up again. Public policy must be balanced. Vaping should not be made as expensive or penalised as much as smoking. Nor should it be made more attractive to non-smokers, particularly children and young people. We need to see restrictions on flavouring and packaging that target young people and children addressed properly in law. The use of vaping among young people is rising. Among 15- and 16-year-olds, vape use now stands at 18%, with 39% in this age group saying they have tried vapes. That should concern us all. Vapes are brightly coloured and flavourful and are marketed to look cool. I have seen young people with vapes because they think it looks cool or their friends are vaping. Some of these young people with vapes may never have lit a cigarette or ever wanted to light one. Yet, according to the Irish Heart Foundation, Irish research shows that teenagers who vape are three to four times more likely to start smoking compared to those who have never used vapes. That is a serious warning sign we cannot ignore. We know the harm is real. According to Professor Eamon Keenan, the HSE's national clinical lead for addictions, children and young people are increasingly falling ill from vaping cannabinoids. The HSE has confirmed that ten people were admitted to acute hospitals for vaping-related illnesses in 2023. Figures from the Health Research Board show that in 2025, 169 young people sought treatment for problems with HCC, hexahydrocannabinol, a drug contained in some vapes and edibles. The environmental impact cannot be ignored. Vapes contain plastic, nicotine salts, heavy metals such as lead and mercury and flammable lithium-ion batteries. They pollute waterways, hurt wildlife and harm people. In Ireland in 2022, an estimated 12.5 million disposable vapes were sold. With use on the rise, we must ask where these devices are. They are being binned, thrown on the ground, polluting waterways and adding to our growing plastic waste problem. As someone who works with my local Tidy Towns group in Shannon, I see this every time there is a litter pick. Vapes are on footpaths, grassways and parks. Even vape shop owners have shared this concern, with many in Clare reaching out to me directly. According to Clare Parenting, vaping impacts physical and mental health, concentration in school, activities, hobbies, relationships and finance. Sinn Féin believes we can and must do better. We must have legislation that is comprehensive, forward looking and focuses on protecting young people, public health and our environment.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. This is about being proactive and taking positive health initiatives. As an ex-smoker and a vape user, I know the difference between the two. I am worried about the reactive, as opposed to proactive, stance this Bill takes. While it moves us forward, it still does not do enough. I have read the latest press release from Responsible Vaping Ireland. It states that similar legislation was passed in England last year and the manufacturers have already started to modify these vapes to make them look like they are reusable by putting in fake charging points to get around that issue. It is just a worry. I understand where we are coming from and the need to keep vapes away from young people who have never smoked before. I noticed before the recess, when the Government introduced an additional tax on vaping liquids, that we are taxing addiction again instead of being proactive and taking a health initiative. It seems to be always about revenue. This will drive stuff into the black market. I have seen this and I am well aware it occurs in other countries. We know vapes were banned in Australia. I have spoken to people who live in Australia. People with an Irish accent who ask for these vapes in a shop will be given them from under the counter. We have to learn from the mistakes other countries have made. I am worried about having a knee-jerk reaction and banning all of these disposable vapes. What happens next? As other speakers asked, What about those people with addiction issues? Last year, surveys on smoking - I think there were two of them - asked all the hard questions, such as how we think we will stop smoking with bans or closing smoking areas. I never saw a questionnaire that set out where there to find an addiction helpline or an accessory to try to get people off what is an addictive substance. I worry about that. While I support the Bill, it needs to be made strong and robust on Committee Stage. We need to make sure vaping does not move into the black market because as bad and all as things are now, if vaping moves under the counter or into the black market, people will not know what they will be vaping.

The single-use, flashy and flavoured disposable vapes that are targeting our children definitely need to be banned. However, the Government Bill only targets products which are being phased out anyway. Sinn Féin has been raising this issue for years. Ireland is years behind the curve in comparison with many countries. Vapes and nicotine pouches in particular pose a very serious health risk to children. My son is 13 years old and one in ten 13-year-olds has vaped. Their brains are still developing. We need to change tack to keep up with these manipulative companies, which are innovating and changing course. They are targeting children with rechargeable, disposable models to circumvent the legislation. We need to be equally innovative in our legislation. In my constituency of Wicklow-Wexford, there are dedicated vape shops in both Gorey and Arklow. Vaping can lead to nicotine addiction, which affects brain development, mood, concentration, anxiety and memory. It can contribute to health issues, mental health issues and a transition to smoking and tobacco products. As I said, the vaping companies are manipulating our young people through very clever marketing tactics. They are being very innovative and moving quicker than we are moving. We need legislation that can and will move with the times when these companies change tack. We need to ban vapes that target children with appealing flavours, designs and colours. These companies have a very strong social media presence, especially on TikTok. Irish research has shown that 23% of 15- to 17-year-olds vape regularly and that teenagers who vape are three to five times more likely to start smoking in comparison with those who never vaped. Vapes are harmful to the environment. In the UK, 5 million disposable vapes are thrown away every week. We then have plastic, heavy metals, nicotine salts and lithium batteries in the environment. Most of the popular vape brands are owned by the big tobacco companies. In Ireland, an estimated 12.5 million disposable vapes were sold in 2022. One in ten 13-year-olds have vaped. These disposable vapes are ending up in landfill sites. They are hugely damaging to the environment and pose serious health and environmental risks. The same companies that profited from telling us back in the 1950s how great smoking was for us are now aggressively targeting a new generation of customers, and they have vastly increased their market. We need action, and we need to be very innovative and clever in our legislation. It is about protecting the youth through education, regulation and awareness. Sinn Féin wants a ban on disposable vapes because they are the equivalent of smoking a battery. They are the most dangerous form of vape for the environment and children. As I said, this is the third Bill in three years on vaping and smoking issues. We need action and legislation instead of mere fine words. As the old saying goes, fine words butter no parsnips.

I welcome the opportunity to speak in support of the Public Health (Single-Use Vapes) Bill 2025 and the Minister of State’s comments on tackling what has become a serious public health and environmental issue. The Minister of State will know that I have raised in the House previously concerns in regard to the rapid growth of single-use vapes, particularly their impact on younger people. These products are cheap, colourful, very easy to use and heavily marketed. They may look harmless but the evidence tells a different story. Disposable vapes have flooded the Irish market in recent years and youth vaping has risen alongside them. Research shows that experimenting with vapes often begins as soon as students enter secondary school. According to the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, ESPAD, one in three students has tried vapes, one in six is a current user and one in 13 has tried nicotine pouches. That is a scale of exposure that we cannot ignore. The HSE has found that while most young people do not use vapes, regular use is increasing. Parents report feeling overwhelmed and unsure of how to respond and teachers say many students believe vaping is a healthier alternative to smoking. However, vaping still involves nicotine, a highly addictive substance that raises blood pressure, increases heart rate and affects brain development in young people. Emerging evidence also links vaping to cardiovascular risks, chronic lung disease and asthma. Studies show that people who use both cigarettes and e-cigarettes may face even greater health risks than those who use either one. Therefore, while vaping may be less harmful than smoking, it is far from safe. These products are clearly designed to appeal to young people. Bright colours, sweet flavours and packaging that resembles sweets or desserts make vapes look more like treats than tobacco products. Focus groups commissioned by the Irish Cancer Society and Irish Heart Foundation found that students found vapes more appealing than traditional cigarettes, with marketing similar to milkshakes or desserts. This Bill restricts point-of-sale advertising and displays, limits flavour descriptors, bans misleading imagery and prevents devices from resembling toys or games. These are practical, evidence-based measures to protect young people from nicotine addiction. The Bill also complements wider public health efforts, such as the HSE’s Take a Deep Breath campaign, which is now providing parents and schools with clear information on the risks of vaping. The new e-liquid tax of 50 cent per millilitre, introduced in last November's budget, is expected to increase the price of typical disposable vapes from €8 to over €9. That matters because young people are more price-sensitive and price measures are often proven to reduce experimentation. The tax is expected to raise around €17 million per year but, more important, it supports the goal of reducing youth uptake. Smoking cessation supports have expanded significantly, with funding for the HSE quit service almost doubling since 2020. For young people, the Quit4Youth programme offers a dedicated seven-week support pathway. Public health is only part of the story, however. Disposable vapes are also an environmental problem. In 2022 alone, an estimated 12.5 million single-use vapes were sold in Ireland. Most were simply thrown away. These devices contain plastic, heavy metals and lithium batteries. When they end up in bins, waterways or on our streets, they pollute the environment and pose fire risks. A ban on single-use vapes is the most effective way to tackle this problem at source. The Bill strikes the right balance. It is grounded in evidence, aligned with EU regulations and focused on prevention. It reflects what parents, teachers, health professionals and communities have been saying for some time, namely, disposable vapes are doing more harm than good. We know that most young people do not vape, and we want to keep it that way, but we also know that curiosity, peer pressure and clever marketing can lead to long-term addiction. Our role as legislators is to create an environment where the healthier choice is the easier choice. This is not about punishing individuals or businesses. It is about protecting children, supporting families, reducing addiction and cleaning up our environment. This Bill is a positive and necessary step forward. It reflects our commitment to a tobacco-free Ireland, youth well-being and responsible public health policy. I commend the Minister of State on bringing it forward and I am pleased to support it.

I support the Public Health (Single-Use Vapes) Bill 2025 because it addresses a regulatory gap that now carries real, not abstract, consequences for health, the environment and the coherence of our public health and environmental policy. Disposable vapes occupy a peculiar position in our regulatory framework. They are legal and widely available, yet they combine elements we would rarely tolerate together, namely, an addictive substance, electronic waste and a design that actively discourages responsibility for responsible disposal. Much of the debate has focused on packaging, flavours, names and marketing. Those issues have already been addressed in Irish law. Even stripped of marketing gimmicks, however, the core problem remains. A single-use vape is a short-lived delivery system for nicotine, intended to be discarded and replaced. That design choice is the issue before us. Nicotine is not benign. It alters neurodevelopment when exposure begins early, reinforces dependence pathways and produces measurable cardiovascular effects, even in young users. In clinical practice, addiction rarely begins with a dramatic moment. It develops through repetition, accessibility and normalisation. Products that remove barriers to that use accelerate that process, and disposable vapes do exactly that. While we are not certain of the long-term health impacts of vaping, we know the effects of nicotine exposure and addiction, nicotine toxicity in pregnancy and nicotine harm to brain development until about the age of 25, and we know that adolescents who use nicotine may be at increased risk for future addiction to other drugs. We know, perversely, that youths who vape are also more likely to smoke cigarettes in the future. We know the additional risks of e-cigarette aerosols, with cancer causing chemicals and heavy metals such as nickel, tin and lead and tiny particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs, with volatile organic compounds increasing risk of chronic lung disease. In the UK, a prospective longitudinal study is being carried out with 100,000 children between the ages of eight and 18 for over ten years to try to learn what is happening to their systems. That is why the evidence on youth vaping matters. Irish and European data show high levels of experimentation among teenagers, and a significant proportion of teenagers are current users. That tells us something important, namely, that this is not confined to a small high-risk group. It is occurring at scale. While there is ongoing debate about vaping as a harm reduction tool for established smokers, there is no clinical or public health rationale for a product format that lowers the threshold for nicotine initiation as far as possible. This Bill draws that distinction carefully. It does not attempt to relitigate every aspect of vaping policy. It does not deny that some adults use regulated vaping products to move away from tobacco. It targets a specific category that serves no essential cessation function but carries a disproportionate share of risk, especially for young people. This is proportionate regulation. There is also a broader responsibility here and it is one the public increasingly understands. Disposable vapes are electronic waste by design. They combine plastic, metal and lithium-ion batteries into a product intended for a very short lifespan. Millions of them are sold each year in Ireland. Most are not recycled. Many enter our general waste streams. Others end up in our streets and public spaces. Our litter monitoring already reflects this trend. As well as being eyesores, discarded vapes have a hugely damaging impact on our environment and wildlife. Whether littered or thrown in a bin and sent to landfill, single-use vapes also release substances, including lead and mercury, into our soil, rivers and streams. The plastics used in these products are nearly impossible for nature to completely break down. Instead, they break into tiny pieces of microplastics, which can enter our food chains. Last year, Material Focus estimated that almost five million single-use vapes were either littered or thrown away in general waste every week in the UK. That is the equivalent of eight being thrown away every second. This is an extremely wasteful use of valuable resources contained in these vapes, such as cobalt and copper. In 2022, the same group found that 40 tonnes of lithium were discarded in single-use vapes in the UK. That is the same amount used to power 5,000 electric vehicles. We can extrapolate those figures to Ireland. For the small number of single-use vapes that are sent for recycling, it is a difficult job because they contain many chemical components and they are not designed to be taken apart. They usually have to be disassembled by hand, a slow and tricky process which struggles to match the avalanche of vapes that are produced and discarded. The lithium-ion batteries in these vapes can also cause fires, which risks the safety of waste management workers, fire fighters and the public. International evidence reinforces the point. Other jurisdictions are now grappling with the scale of battery waste created by single-use vapes and the loss of critical materials that are in short supply. At a time when the State is investing heavily in electrification, energy storage and sustainable supply chains, continuing to permit a disposable electronic product of this kind is increasingly difficult to defend. The Bill does not attempt to resolve every issue associated with vaping. Rather, it focuses on one product category that introduces avoidable risk and waste into everyday use. Considered from a health and environmental perspective, it is difficult to justify leaving this issue unaddressed.

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.

I echo the concerns raised by my colleagues across the House today. The sales of single-use vapes to minors and their use of these vapes have reached epidemic levels in Ireland. The vaping industry has deliberately exploited this reality. The figures are incredible. WEEE Ireland found that vapes accounted for 33% of all electronic devices sold in 2024. That is a huge percentage. These brightly coloured, sweetly flavoured products are targeting vulnerable young people in particular who are unaware of the serious long-term dangers that they pose. As the Taoiseach rightly said, vapes are the revenge of the tobacco industry and they have the potential to bring another generation back into addiction. We have all seen it at first hand throughout the city. You cannot walk around Dublin without seeing several young people vaping. While the sale of vapes to those under 18 has been banned since 2023, more than one in five vape shops have been found to be in breach of the law in this regard. They are profiting directly from the addiction of young people to substances that have been increasingly linked to serious negative health outcomes. I understand that many have found vaping to be a useful tool for getting away from smoking. It is clear now that this is a minority of those who purchase vapes on an ongoing basis. The 2024 Irish report of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, ESPAD, indicated that more than three quarters of e-cigarette users had never smoked traditional cigarettes in their lives and just 0.6% used them as a means of stopping, getting away or transitioning from smoking. The environmental damage is the other side and it is equally alarming. A typical disposable vape contains a battery of approximately 550 milliamp hours. As these batteries are built into tightly sealed, single-use devices, getting them out of these devices safely and recovering the metals inside is nigh impossible. At the waste-to-energy facility in Poolbeg, I have seen the potential risk of even small lithium batteries. They get into the fire chamber, explode and cause all sorts of issues. There are millions of small batteries now being disposed of, often incorrectly, representing not only a big waste of materials but also putting a lot of pressure on recycling infrastructure in the city and down the country in dealing with that waste. When they are thrown away, they can leak toxic substances into the environment. These include heavy metals like mercury, lead and bromide along with battery acid and, as I mentioned, lithium. Lithium is a combustible component of batteries. Some e-cigarettes contain such high levels of hazardous waste chemicals that they should actually be classified as hazardous waste. If we are serious about reducing waste and protecting the environment in Ireland, we simply cannot justify selling single-use electronic devices like these on an ongoing basis. I commend the Minister of State, and the Minister, Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, for advancing this legislation and recognising the scale of the challenge, for young people in particular, that we now face. We cannot ignore the growing evidence of harm that vaping poses for young people. We have to step into this, lean into it and deal with it. The progress Ireland has made in preventing smoking among new generations is at real risk of being reversed by these toxic and wasteful products unless we take the action.

It is a great start to the new year for me to be here in the Chamber addressing an Aire Stáit, another strong female TD from Carlow. Go raibh maith agat. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Murnane O'Connor, for the work she is doing for the young people in Carlow and Kilkenny. Thank you once again. Speaking as a parent first and foremost I am alarmed at the increase in the sale of vaping products among our young people. I welcome the new legislation being brought forward by the Minister of State, which is coming online next month. It will mean that a premises must now have a licence to sell vapes. It is long overdue. While 7% of adults report regularly vaping, this number is dwarfed by the 13% of children between the ages of 12 and 17 who say they now vape regularly. Of those who vape, the majority of children report that their vapes of choice are single-use disposable vapes. Having begun as a means of helping smokers to quit, vaping has unfortunately become an addiction in its own right with health consequences that we do not firmly understand yet. I am of the strong belief that we have a responsibility to help prevent our young people becoming the nicotine industry's test subjects. As a result, I firmly support the measures contained in this Bill. While we do not yet know the long-term consequences of consistent vaping among our young people, what we do know about the short-term effects should be enough to argue the case. Nicotine dependence, sleep problems, mental health difficulties, damage to the lungs, heart and blood vessels and exposure to toxins are just some of the adverse effects that consistent use of vape products are known to cause in young people. According to the HSE, even nicotine-free vapes carry risks. Vape liquid that does not contain nicotine often contains other more harmful chemicals such as colours and flavourings that can be harmful when inhaled. That is the key point here. Any product that causes such blatant health concerns is clearly inappropriate for young people. Yet, vape products are brazenly marketed with bright colours and a variety of flavours in an explicit appeal to children. Vaping products are known to use cartoon characters and are designed sleekly, calling out to the younger generation. Some vaping products are indistinguishable from toys. In many other countries, like in Ireland, the rate of vape use among children exceeds that of adults. It has been shown that even brief exposure to e-cigarette content online strongly correlates with a greater intention to use these products, as well a more positive outlook towards e-cigarettes in general. Young people who regularly make use of vaping products are also more likely to engage in much more harmful behaviours such as smoking. On average, children who vape are three to five times more likely to take up smoking. Unfortunately, what was once seen as an off-ramp for smokers is now increasingly a gateway to smoking for our young people. In my experience as a sports coach I know the harms that vaping presents for athletes. Vaping can decrease lung capacity, increase fatigue, and ultimately make it more likely for children to give up sports long before they may otherwise to do so. This is a really alarming consequence of the single-use vape. I welcome the many measures that have been taken to combat the spread of vaping among our young people, which include an e-liquids tax that came into effect last November, and the launch of a licensing regime that will come into effect in the next month. On the ground in Carlow and Kilkenny, as the Minister of State will know, measures have also been taken to try to reduce the impact of vaping on young people. Of these, the success of the Not Around Us campaign has been particularly impressive. This campaign, under the stewardship of Carlow County Council and Kilkenny County Council together, is an ask from young people to adults to consider their activity in outdoor spaces that are used by children and young people, so that young people can experience smoke- and vape-free spaces and environments. The aim of the campaign is to de-normalise smoking and vaping around children and young people. Initiatives such as this showcase the desire on the ground to protect our young people from the dangers of nicotine dependence. On an environmental level this Bill aims to not only protect our natural heritage from pollution with disposable vapes, but also to protect the health and well-being of workers in the waste industry who regularly face potentially hazards owing to the use of lithium-ion batteries in vaping products. Single-use vapes present an enormous number of challenges for our young people, our environment and our public health in general. Over the past months we have seen measures come into effect that will directly combat and reverse the trend of children taking up vaping. Of these measures, an outright ban as proposed in this Bill will, in my view, represent the firmest possible statement of this Government's intention to safeguard our children's health.

It is very strange that the majority of us here seem to be from Carlow and Kilkenny. The Labour Party and I welcome the general thrust of what the Minister of State is trying to do with this Bill. I stand here as someone who has struggled an awful lot with nicotine addiction. It is something that personally I have found very hard to overcome for a number of years. I have been on again and off again. I have been smoking cigarettes and have been off cigarettes, I have been smoking cigarettes and I have been off cigarettes, and I have been vaping. I have found that of all of the different methods of nicotine consumption, vaping is the worst of them, and especially in relation to single-use vapes. Here in my pocket I have an old Elf Bar vape which I found in the drawer in my office. There was one stage when I went through four and five of those in any given week. I agree with what the Taoiseach said when he spoke about vaping being the "revenge of the tobacco industry". The fact is that the tobacco industry is so inventive it will find any way it can to get past whatever level of regulation comes in. We are seeing this right now with nicotine pouches. If vaping is the revenge of the tobacco industry then nicotine pouches are the revenge of the vaping industry. I have been shocked by this. I know, and I hope, that the Minister of State will be dealing with this soon with a separate piece of legislation. I was shocked when I went into a local shop near my house a couple of months ago and was offered a nicotine pouch. I was asked did I want to sample a nicotine pouch for nothing. I could not believe it. The pouch was literally put on the counter of the shop and offered to me. I want to make a number of points in relation to some potential loopholes that may appear. We know that single-use vapes have been banned in the UK. We know that the legislation there has had some success, but at the same time there have been issues with so-called fake reusable vapes. We are already beginning to see this here. Consider the Elf Bar vape that I have here. One can buy this Elf Bar vape right now in any given shop or petrol station with a little charging port and a part that comes off, like the lid comes off the body of it. That is, essentially, the same product as the pre-existing disposable vapes. There have been issues in the UK in this regard. I would welcome the Minister of State and the Department looking into this issue whereby the industry is attaching a bit of a charging point or nominally making the pod removable in order to qualify the device as being reusable. The tobacco and vape industry need to be mandated to have a particular type of pod or a series of maybe three or different pods. I make that point because in being cognisant of the role vaping plays for certain people in smoking cessation, which is important, we need to ensure when we ban single-use vapes and people are purchasing vapes that they are buying, say, a substantial vape that comes with a standard set of pods that they will not just throw in the bin after they have used it. The issue the UK has had with this small change of pod design is it is just enough in terms of its legislation for big tobacco or big nicotine to dodge the definition of disposable. Deputy Callaghan said we do not want our children to be the nicotine industry's test subjects but they already are. I was in a local secondary school recently and the staff were talking about the sheer amount of vapes they find in a given week. I was talking to caretaker who I am quite friendly with and he told me at least twice in a given month he has to call some sort of drain specialist out to this secondary school, which is small enough, because somebody has tried to flush a single-use vape, which could be an Elf Bar or Lost Mary vape, down the toilet where it then gets caught. Government needs to come forward with a specific strategy on vaping cessation because we have a generation of people who were smokers and then use vaping to give up smoking, which is fine and legitimate, but we are going to have a generation of people who will have just vaped and there are no targeted resources or an information campaign targeted at getting them off the vapes. That is really important. It is urgent and important, as I said, that as soon as the Minister of State is finished with this legislation she move on to the nicotine pouches because the advertising of those has already started. I go over and back to the UK a good bit and the vast majority of people I know who use single-use vapes are in my peer group and maybe use them when they have a few drinks. They are already starting, especially friends of mine who live in the likes of London and Liverpool, to move over to nicotine pouches. They moved over to the pouches because they knew the ban on vapes was coming in the UK. The advertisers had moved and it all clicks in like that, so it is really important this is all being done this year and that we keep an eye on what the UK has done to see how we can tweak and tighten up our legislation based on the loopholes the UK has had with, for example, the black market and the idea of a vape being, ipso facto, reusable when it is not in reality. A big awareness campaign is needed on vaping but specifically on the implications for waste providers and recycling companies. I have visited bin companies in Limerick. I visited Mr. Binman a couple of months ago and I was told about the number of fires the company has in bin trucks due to single-use vapes exploding or bursting into flames. It is unbelievable. The company had an incident a couple of months ago when it had to dump a bin truck in a residential housing estate because of a fire. The message really needs to get out to people that they should not throw these things in the bin because when they get crushed the lithium ion battery will be crushed and this will cause a fire or potentially an explosion.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on Second Stage of this Bill. At its core this legislation is about clear principles in protecting public health, especially the health of our young people, while tackling a growing environmental problem in our community. On that basis, I fully support the intent of the Bill. In my constituency, it is impossible to ignore the extent of the issue. Almost every town and village has at least one vape shop. Never before has nicotine been so accessible in our society and with that accessibility comes serious societal and environmental consequences. In Galway East communities take enormous pride in initiatives like Tidy Towns and in keeping our towns and villages clean, yet disposable vapes are now a common sight on our streets, in hedgerows, near our schools and in our playgrounds. You cannot walk down the street without seeing a discarded single-use vape. These products contain plastics, electronics and lithium batteries and do not belong in our environment. This Bill takes an important step towards removing harmful and wasteful products from our streets. The public health concern is even more pressing. Despite age restrictions these products are finding their way into the hands of young people, often in brightly packaged, fruit-flavoured forms clearly designed to appeal to them. Ireland has worked hard over the decades to reduce smoking and nicotine use but sleek devices, sweet flavours, aggressive marketing and a presence in popular media are now undoing much of that great progress. What was once marketed as a smoking-cessation tool for adults has normalised nicotine use among young people and thereby created habits that risk lasting a lifetime. The Bill fits squarely within the wider public health direction. While vaping is often presented as harmless nicotine addiction remains a serious concern, especially for adolescents. Galway East has a modest youth population yet there are a striking number of vape shops operating from small country villages to the city centre and we must ask what is sustaining the level of that supply. The sheer availability of these products highlights that legislation alone is not enough. We need strong enforcement and that will be critical in combatting this. Second Stage is agreeing the principle of the Bill and the principle here is sound. If we are serious about protecting our young people, reducing nicotine addiction and addressing the environmental damage caused by disposable vapes action is required. The task ahead is to ensure this legislation is implemented properly, resourced adequately and enforced consistently in every community. Our responsibility is to safeguard public health, protect our environment and ensure the hard-won progress made in reducing nicotine use is not lost with a new generation.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on vapes again. I spoke about it in September and said vapes are the bane of many parents and their children. I have been contacted since then, and was contacted prior to that, about how vapes cause so many arguments in families. As parents, we thought children do not smoke anymore and young people do not smoke but now we have vapes. When I was sitting here I wondered how much a vape costs. A vape is about €10 but a packet of cigarettes is about €23, so it is significantly cheaper to buy vapes and you can get your nicotine hit much more cheaply. Part of the difficulty is every year we put up the price of cigarettes but maybe we need to think about that for vapes as well to make it prohibitive for people to buy them. I am talking specifically about young people for the reason that I am a mother of four and vaping comes up quite a lot. It comes up with my friends and constituents that young people are really affecting their health and there is not a widespread understanding of how bad vapes are for people. It is an addictive substance that damages lungs and people. I spoke to a beautician who mentioned the number of young people she saw who had poor skin because of vaping. There are all these things that do not get talked about and the challenge is something I talked about in September. I was quoted in the newspaper. I was not being flippant at the time, but people can get vapes to match their outfits and people who use vapes do that because they are being marketed to a certain cohort. As I said in September, if I were that age, I possibly would vape. I was not that fashion conscious to be honest at that age, but I probably would have been looking to be part of that marketing thing. It is clever and we are behind, in that we are not challenging these companies and this business in the way we can. In September, I spoke about the fact that under-18s were being sold vapes even though it was not allowed. At the time, I asked whether anyone was ever prosecuted. I heard over Christmas that people had been prosecuted. I am delighted about that. Can we have more of that, please? I certainly do not want young people going to buy a substance that is bad for them that they are not supposed to be able to get. I am delighted there were prosecutions of that. Schools have had to fit particular smoke alarms to detect vapes and that is an additional cost for schools that they should not have. There is a lot of research on health issues and schools are doing great work to try to let young people know that it is as detrimental to their health as smoking a packet of cigarettes. I am delighted to see that and I commend schools that are doing that and supporting parents to make sure they understand the situation as well. As the previous speaker said, single-use vapes are a challenge environmentally - they are just used and then dumped - but as Deputy Sheehan said, those that can be charged, which are just a notch up from being disposable, are a challenge as well. All the wires have to be disposed of. It is detrimental to our environment. This conversation is timely. I would love to see us get to a situation where we do not have to continue to talk about it and we are able to make sure all those things are implemented for people not to be reliant on vapes. When vapes came out, I had family members who used them to try to come off cigarettes. However, that was years ago and they are still using vapes. They could perhaps stop using cigarettes, but they are using vapes. I was happy to hear the Government was looking at legislation to ban the use of vapes in pubs, restaurants and so forth. Happy days. I cannot stand the smell, as I am sure lots of people cannot. If we cannot smoke in there, we should not be able to vape there either. I look forward to the day we do not have to worry about young people having access to vapes, when they are not attracted to them and when we have restrictions in place on people who sell these products. Before I finish, there is also the issue of nicotine pouches that are being used by young people and that are hugely problematic for their health. We are not talking about that specifically today, but we need to talk about it. Big nicotine companies are profiting from the ill-health of our young people and other citizens.

I call Deputy Mark Ward.

Good timing. Give me a second.

I should have kept talking.

I was trying to give Deputy Cummins a nod there. This is the third vaping Bill we have discussed. Another is on the way. This piecemeal approach is not working. A comprehensive Bill that encapsulates everything the Minister of State is looking to do in one Bill would have gone through the Houses much more quickly. While we are waiting for these Bills to be passed, our communities are suffering. In Clondalkin village, the proximity of vape shops to schools is a major issue. A person only has to walk around Clondalkin village at lunchtime to see hoards of young people in their school uniforms going in and out of vape shops, no doubt getting vapes and then coming out onto the road vaping. The Minister of State will see that is a problem. They are in their uniforms. They are openly vaping. They are vaping with their friends. It also leads to antisocial behaviour at night because a number of young people congregate around these vape shops. It is leading to residents feeling intimidated. There have been reports of antisocial behaviour, open drug use and open drug dealing in and around vape shops and other shops at night. Residents have reported this to An Garda Síochána. The Garda station is only around the corner, but the Garda's reaction in getting around to resolving this problem needs to be addressed. It does not seem to have the resources in Clondalkin Garda station. We have also seen environmental problems associated with single use vapes. People who walk down any street in any village will see discarded single-use vapes littering our villages. The Sinn Féin representative for Lucan, Derren Ó Brádaigh, informed me earlier that this was a big issue for Lucan Tidy Towns. Lucan Tidy Towns does great work in cleaning up our area, but a lot of that time is taken up tediously peeling off stickers that are in these vapes. I had to ask someone what the stickers were for. They are to protect the batteries in the vapes until they are used. Young people take off the stickers and stick them to a bin or pole and this is causing big problems for how our areas look. They look unkempt and untidy and it takes a long time to remove them. It can be demoralising for such organisations as the Lucan Tidy Towns group in the work they do. They are cleaning up and going about their work only to suddenly come across a bin full of stickers that looks absolutely terrible. There are also long-term environmental impacts of disposable vapes, for example, the plastic. They are powered by batteries that have lithium and copper in them. The circuit boards inside disposable vapes contain a number of heavy metals and rare minerals, including cobalt, lead and mercury. In addition to the unsightly litter, this can have an impact on soil if they are discarded on grass verges, for example, and on water if they get into our waterways. I have a bit of time left so I will mention something else. Vapes came along and there was no regulation in place. No one knew what impact they would have and the Government is trying to play catch-up now. When something that is unregulated comes in, it can lead to wider implications. I spoke to the Minister of State before about nitrous oxide and how it was not regulated. As no legislation has been put in place to tackle nitrous oxide use, commonly known as laughing gas, in our communities, there is a wild west situation in our areas. People who walk down any street will see discarded nitrous oxide canisters. When they first came in, they were small silver bullets and then they increased to big industrial-sized nitrous oxide canisters. These large nitrous oxide canisters have no legitimate use. They are not for the catering trade or medical trade. They have no legitimate use, yet - the Minister of State participated in the same debate as me and saw how - a journalist was able to order these overnight and got them the next day. We need to see something in place to stop this because it is having a long-term impact on the health of young people. It is also having an impact on people driving. There is still no test for gardaí to be able to test people for nitrous oxide. The HSE adolescent addiction services are playing a bit of catch-up in how to deal with it because they do not know the long-term effects. We need to start to see legislation in place. I have brought forward legislation that passed First Stage and that would make it a lot harder for nitrous oxide to end up in the hands of young people. The connection with vapes is - I will bring it back around - that the same marketing ploys are being used for nitrous oxide as are used for single-use vapes. They are brightly coloured and flavoured. They are marketed towards young children. I have always asked myself, if someone needs to use this in the dental industry or catering industry, why they would need to have a raspberry- or blueberry-flavoured nitrous oxide. That goes to show it is directly targeted at young children.

Looking at this Bill, the four pillars of it are a new tax, a full ban, 40 new enforcement posts, and an annual cost of new inspection powers. I would have preferred the Bill to go into more detail about the power of the inspection, what we are expecting from that and the costs surrounding it, but I am sure it will be fleshed out later. I am sure the Minister of State will address it as time goes on. Like my colleague, Deputy Mark Ward, said, there is no town, village or city that has not seen a huge influx of these types of shops, single-use vape shops that are brightly coloured. Some of them almost look like ice cream parlours with bright neon and various lights inside them, attracting young eyes. It would be very easy to say it looks more like a pick and mix shop than anything tobacco related, particularly because of the bright colours such as raspberry, watermelon and all of these sorts of things. There is a question on this issue we are not addressing in this House. There seems to be a huge influx of these shops popping up everywhere, along with the barber shops that will only take cash, will not take a credit card and will not or are unable to print a receipt. There are questions about that. I regret very much that this Bill is not encompassing head shops. That is a serious problem we have in this country. We have not looked at the planning permissions either when it comes to local authorities giving out permission because these shops seem to be popping up everywhere. How is it we can have a high street with these types of vape shops and head shops down the road? As Deputy Mark Ward said about the gas bullets that are available out there, they are all being sold in head shops. They are available to people and it is something we need to crack down on. This Bill has a lot of merits. I am concerned about where the taxation is, the spending, the creating of 40 new posts and exactly what will be done, but we need to address these matters. The other side of this is that we have to get the balance right. Everybody has the right to smoke a vape or cigarette, drink alcohol or whatever. I have no problem with that. That is up to anyone who is over 18. That is fair. However, we have to take account of health. We also need to look in particular at how we educate people to stay away from these things. How do we educate people on how this is damaging their health? How much of the tax that is being collected is being directly put into advertising and into informing people of better health choices? A Deputy spoke about how it was affecting young people's skin and how her beautician told her that it had a negative effect on people's skin. Why are we not advertising that to young people? In an age where we have young people on TikTok trying to imitate the Kardashians and whoever else of the social media people out there living their best lives, or portraying that, why are we not advertising towards them? A little bit more of the moneys collected via tax needs to be aimed directly towards young people and telling people that it is their choice if they are over 18 but these are the consequences. That is what we really need to look at. It is a mature conversation and it is the right conversation to have.

I am a reformed smoker - I have not smoked a cigarette in 30 years. Then came in the smoking ban, which was targeted at adults. I do not agree with these one-off vapes but if one is an adult, one should have the common sense to know whether to use a vape. Personally, I would nearly prefer to see somebody smoke a cigarette than what is inside those vapes because their contents are unknown, as are the adverse reactions to them. If one is an adult, that is a decision one has to make. My issue is with the number of pop-up shops selling these vapes. We have had shops that were there for decades but had to close down because they could not make a living, yet these pop-up shops can set up on high-end streets and keep their doors open. They can make massive profits and keep the doors open by just selling vapes. It is absolutely crazy. We have generations upon generations of people trying to keep their shops open for the delivery of food and goods to people but who cannot, yet a pop-up shop can do so. I have massive concerns about the age group who are now using these vapes. Children as young as nine are getting vapes. They are getting strawberry and Coca-Cola flavours. How easily led are children at that age? There should 100% be a crackdown on vapes. When the smoking ban came in, the then Government said it tried to limit the number of people who were using cigarettes. It raised and raised the taxes on cigarettes. There are a lot more people addicted in this country to nicotine than there are people who are smoking. The highest rate is among people who are vaping. We are catching people throwing one-off vapes away. We are talking about recycling and looking after the environment, yet all of these vapes are being thrown on the ground. We now have an issue with refillable vapes as well because it looks like liquid cocaine and so on can be put into them and people could be on drugs while they are having a vape. One makes the decisions for oneself as an adult. If you go down that slippery road, you are an adult, but for any person who is not an adult and any person who gives these vapes to people who are under age, the full rigour of the law should apply. There are children from the ages of nine, ten and upwards involved. One responsibility that has not been mentioned is that of the parents who are themselves vaping and showing their children it is okay to vape. Accountability comes back to parenting as well. We are responsible for under-18s, including children. Adults are responsible for themselves and their health and what they are putting into their bodies. We can try to put things in place to tell people that vapes are bad for them but they are putting them into their own bodies. I heard somebody mention it recently, and I actually told someone myself, that they might be better off to go out and put their lips around the exhaust of a car with the fumes coming out of it than breathing in what is in some of these vapes. It is unknown what is in these vapes but any person who gives or sells vapes to a child should be 100% held accountable, and I would be 100% behind that.

Tens of thousands of people in this country smoke cigarettes. Tens of thousands of people use vapes. Those are the facts. A lot of these people do so as a bit of a relaxant. We have to understand that is a fact in this country. We tend to think that we should ban everything. This Bill proposes a full ban on the sale of single-use vapes and when it comes to children, I fully agree that no child should ever have access to these products. Adults are a different matter, though. Adults know the risks. Many adults use vapes as a substitute for smoking, which we all know is harmful. Adults are exactly that - adults - and they should have the freedom to make their own choices. We cannot keep sliding into a nanny state where the Government dictates every personal decision. This is presented as a public health measure but with everything happening in Ireland right now, I believe our time would be better spent elsewhere. We are on the verge of allowing carcinogenic meat and poultry products into this country under a thing called the Mercosur deal. This is a real public health crisis and one that could affect every single person in Ireland for generations, yet there is barely a word from the Government or media. If this Government truly cares about health it, should be sending a very strong message to Europe, "No to Mercosur". The Government should be ensuring all of its own MEPs agree to "No to Mercosur" and no to poisoning the Irish people. Back to vapes, taxing vape liquid is another mistake. Most adults who buy these products are trying to quit smoking. Adding more tax will push them back to the cigarettes. This is just another cost for Irish people dressed up as a protection. If the Government wants to protect citizens, it should start by protecting our own food supply. Let us talk about the cost. It will cost €3.1 million per year to enforce this ban, plus the 40 new enforcement posts. Instead of creating more bureaucracy, why not invest in education? Teach young people about the dangers of vaping and smoking. That is where prevention starts. We in Independent Ireland are critical of policies that hit ordinary people and small businesses such as Green-style taxes, over-regulation and extra public sector staffing. This Bill has all four: a new tax, a full ban, new inspection powers and annual costs. That is overkill. We support protecting children but the right approach is targeted measures such as a ban on sales to under-18s, restrictions on flavours and packaging, enforcing existing nicotine rules and cracking down on illegal imports, and not punishing adult users. Our position is simple. Right aim; wrong tool. Protect children, yes, but stop piling on bans, taxes and bureaucracy. Respect adult choice and focus on real health threats, such as Mercosur.

I also broadly welcome this Bill, incremental as it may be. This legislation is a long-overdue partial measure responding to a significant public health concern, especially for our younger people. The Irish and international research has been sounding the alarm for several years. We have had multiple debates about this. The initial measure to clampdown on the underage sales had some impact. It was welcome. The Healthy Ireland survey showed that daily vaping among 15- to 19-year-olds had reached 12.9% in 2023 before falling to 9.3% in 2024 following the ban on under-18 sales. It is good to see that but the underlying trend remains deeply worrying in terms of moving forward. A major study published in The Lancet Regional Health - Europe led by researchers from the HSE, Trinity College, the Royal College of Surgeons and UCC found a 20-fold increase in vaping among young people and concluded that vaping is hooking a new generation of Irish people on nicotine, rather than helping them quit smoking. It, in itself, is creating a new drug, rather than being an aid for smoking, as an allegedly more dangerous activity. Meanwhile we have the Irish Health Survey 2024, using CSO data, reporting that nearly one-in-four young adults aged 18 to 34 now use or have at least once used vaping products, with almost 14% vaping every day. These are not numbers we can ignore. They represent a major shift in nicotine consumption patterns in Ireland - something that the companies are pushing big time to keep the revenue streams going. In previous debates as well as in this debate, we have had discussions and revelations about the chemicals contained in the products, the individual chemicals and their cumulative effect. There may be a lack of long-term research but there certainly is some research showing that vaping products have a health impact. The environmental footprint has also been mentioned, adding the likes of the plastics, the lithium batteries and the electronic waste onto our streets and waterways, as other Deputies have referred to. No more than in my constituency, Tidy Towns groups, environmental groups and individual concerned citizens have reported a massive increase in these disposable products. I want at the outset to reference something I raised previously. It is not related to this legislation but we are doing nothing about the nitrous oxide canisters. That is a major environmental and health concern also. In relation to the vaping, this Bill is a necessary limited step to protect public health and the environment but it is focusing too narrowly on the single-use devices when the research shows the problem is broader and the industry is already adapting to the changes, as noted elsewhere. The Lancet study I referred to makes clear another problem, namely, dual-use - smoking and vaping together. This gives the lie to the argument that vaping is about helping people to quit smoking. It is no longer strongly associated with quitting intentions and, as I stated previously, it is a new profit vehicle for producers. If our goal is to reduce any type of nicotine addiction, we need this more comprehensive regulatory framework for all nicotine products, including the refillable vapes, nicotine pouches, which I mentioned in this Chamber previously and which have their own negative health indicators that need to be looked at, and other emerging synthetic nicotine products. It is also the case, even with the welcome initial reduction, that enforcement still remains a major challenge in this country in terms of catching out companies and individual businesses selling to young people. The drop in youth vaping after the under-18 sales ban showed that the regulation works but it will continue working only if that enforcement is resourced and ongoing. The online sales, the social media marketing and other informal retail channels, including the likes of influencers, continue to target and supply minors in whatever way they can. By saying "minors", I am not only talking about those under age; I am talking about young people who otherwise may not have even considered trying vaping products. Without significant investment in the enforcement capacity such as dedicated environmental health officers and customs staff, the ban risks becoming more of a symbolic victory - talking the talk but not really walking the walk. The Bill does not go far enough in addressing issues such as marketing and product design. Other jurisdictions have moved much more decisively. The UK announced a ban on disposable vapes and restrictions on flavours, packaging and point-of-sale displays, and several EU countries, including France and Germany, are pursuing broader bans and stricter controls on nicotine concentrations. We, as a country, risk falling behind if we do not bring in similar measures. The Bill narrowly focuses on single-use disposable vapes. That includes the enforcement powers, the offences, the definitions of single-use and related administrative provisions but it does not include flavour restrictions, nicotine strength limits, packaging or advertising rules, or design restrictions, especially ones anticipating the measures brought in by sellers and producers in other jurisdictions such as the charging ports and pre-fill pods some of my colleagues have reference. What I am particularly concerned about is that the Bill does not ban or regulate flavours. That is the most glaring omission in the legislation. The HSE-supported study in The Lancet Regional Health - Europe found that the sweet and fruit flavours were the most common reason that young people start vaping. The ESRI's research shows that flavour descriptors significantly increase the appeal of vaping products to teenagers. I get why the Government might be leaving this element out and instead say it could bring it in through separate regulations under the Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Act 2023 or amending that or other legislation. The most logical reason relates to the requirement under the EU's tobacco products directive where member states must notify the European Commission before introducing new product standard rules, including flavour bans. My understanding is this process takes six-to-12 months and requires things such as justification, a standstill period and clear scientific evidence. The Minister of State may correct me if I am wrong but it appears the Government has not yet notified the EU under the tobacco products directive of any intention to ban or restrict flavours. It could have done that concurrently up to the point of introducing this Bill so that it was ready to go alongside until it had a near-final drafted regulations. It appears that no matter what, a key factor to help stop attracting young people and older people to vaping is now still a long way down the road because of that. If I can get that clarification, it would be great but the work could have been done alongside. The UK's upcoming legislation, as I mentioned, includes flavour restrictions along with the plain packaging and display bans, etc. France is looking at exploring the flavour limits and is pursuing a full ban of disposable vapes as well. The Netherlands has already banned all non-tobacco flavours in e-liquids. Germany is considering similar restrictions and has already tightened advertising rules. We risk falling behind. To quote the famous album by The Cranberries, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? I support the Bill in principle because it protects young people, reduces the environmental harm and moves Ireland closer to a coherent nicotine control strategy. However, we need to speed up on the other measures. Otherwise, we risk being left behind because the flavours are a hugely important element as well.

I thank the Members of the House for their contributions to the debate today and I look forward to their support as this Bill is further considered on Committee Stage. The range of measures that we have developed to address the problems caused by vaping are the result of thorough consideration. This Bill has one purpose, which is to ban single-use vapes, but we are soon bringing in the legislation to address the many other issues around these products. We are moving ahead of some EU counterparts with some of the measures in this Bill and in our upcoming law. For instance, France and Belgium are the only other EU countries to have progressed with a ban on disposable vapes. The UK and New Zealand have similar laws and I welcome our Government being so progressive on this issue. There is a risk in this approach. It means that consumers may be able to avoid these measures by making purchases from other countries. We are aware of that. I know it was spoken about today. That is why the Minister for Health has repeatedly called on the European Commission to bring forward a new tobacco products directive as soon as possible, for example, an EU-wide ban on single-use vapes. It would be much more effective with an EU-wide ban on cross-border purchase of these products which would mean progressive member states can continue with other regulations without the concerns that measures will be undermined by purchasing from countries with different laws. We will continue to call on the EU for wider measures but we will also continue to legislate to protect the health of our children. This Bill needs to be notified at EU level and assessed by other member states and the European Commission. The required notification was made in December. There is a six-month assessment period which must be served. It has been sent to the EU. I look forward to a positive response from the European Commission on this measure. I am also finalising a law to provide for baseline measures on all current and future nicotine products. This is important as we see newer products like nicotine pouches on the market, and several Members brought this up. We are very much aware of these new nicotine pouches. Last year, we held a public consultation on vapes. We sought views on issues such as flavours, packaging and point-of-sale advertising and displays. The consultation received nearly 16,000 responses which tells you the number of people who have concerns. We were really pleased with that. This level of interest is not surprising. Like all of us, I hear the concerns of parents and teachers every day about the level of nicotine used by children and young people. The responses to the consultation along with evidence reviews, a regulatory impact assessment and legal advice, have informed our proposed law. We are working to ensure that it will be legally robust as well as effective. As was said today, this has to work and has to be effective. We are talking about products such as nicotine pouches that already exist or any further products that may be designed for recreational use of nicotine. It is important that these types of products are covered by legislation now. We saw how quickly vapes increased in use among our young people and how widely available the different colours and flavours became. It happened so quickly. We do not want the same thing to happen with other nicotine products. It is important that a comprehensive law addresses new products as it is constantly changing. The further approved measures we are currently finalising will prohibit the sale of these products and any future nicotine products to any person under the age of 18. The next Bill will restrict colours and imagery on the packages of vapes and on devices to make them less attractive to children. It will also restrict the flavours available and ban all flavour descriptors and language other than the basic flavour names. This is to remove the marketing potential of the use of child-friendly flavours which is important. The Bill will also ban the advertising of these products in shops such as supermarkets and convenience stores as well as specialist shops and the vape shops we see popping up. With the new licensing system coming in, pop-up shops will not be able to get a licence. People spoke about the number of pop-up shops. I have written to local authorities about this. We will ban the retail display of these products in supermarkets, convenience stores and other mixed retail outlets. An awareness campaign came up today as well. I am mindful of that. Working with my Department, which I would like to thank for its hard work, and the HSE, we will have a big awareness campaign on this. We will go into schools and will advertise it. I am mindful of that around the country. A few issues were raised. One in particular was why the two Bills are separate instead of one. This was on the advice of the Attorney General and due to the regulatory framework for single-use vapes being different from that of the nicotine inhaling products. Our plans to restrict flavours, regular packaging and restrict point-of-sale displays for nicotine inhaling products will be delivered in the public health (tobacco products and nicotine inhaling products) (amendment) Bill. This Bill will be drafted by the end of the month. We are working hard with the Department and my team. It will be drafted by the end of the month and, subject to Cabinet approval, will then be ready to enter the Houses. There was also concern about the definition of single-use vapes. The definition used is based on a UK law. That has been worked through with the Office of the Attorney General. We are satisfied this has the intended effect. Time given for prosecutions and offences also came up. This is a standard provision in the tobacco control law. It ensures our National Environmental Health Service has enough time to prepare a robust case for any prosecution taken. Resources were also brought up. As Members know, we work closely with the HSE to provide sufficient resources for our National Environmental Health Service, our enforcement body. More resources would allow our environmental health officers to do more. In budget 2026, I am delighted to say I secured an extra environmental health officer in each region which will help with enforcement matters. We have extra staff in each region. The team has worked very hard on that. On taxing of vapes, last year, my colleagues and the Minister for Finance placed a tax on e-liquids of 50 cent per ml. This was put on as an incentive not to buy them. The delay and industry pressure came up as well. There was a suggestion there were delays in bringing this law forward owing to industry pressures on the Department of Health. I assure the House neither the Department of Health nor I engaged with any tobacco or vaping industry. Ireland is part a framework convention on tobacco control which provides that parties should protect their public health policy from interference by the tobacco industry. The Department of Health actively complies with the legal requirements and has urged other Government Departments, public representatives and public officials to do the same. Our national tobacco control policy, Tobacco Free Ireland, is currently being reviewed. This review will consider the full range of existing legislation and voluntary measures to protect the public from second-hand smoke and aerosols, which came up a lot today, and whether they should be strengthened. This will be done in the context of Council recommendations on smoke and aerosol-free environments which recommend that member states protect the public from second-hand smoke and aerosols in a range of indoor and outdoor spaces with a particular focus on spaces for children, education and healthcare. Education is key to this. As I said earlier, this legislation is about prevention. By banning single-use vapes, we are taking further action to protect young people from nicotine addiction and to prevent a new generation from becoming dependent on these products. This is about protecting health and well-being in particular for younger people. I look forward to returning to the House when we have finalised, comprehensive laws on other aspects of vapes and other tobacco products such a nicotine pouches. I know there will be further debate on Committee Stage. I hope Members will work with us in ultimately enacting this important legislation. I thank everyone. This is really important legislation. It is important we get it through the House as soon as possible. We are ready with the enforcements and the team from the HSE on awareness. With all of us working together, it will be game-changing.