2025-12-17

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am delighted to be here to introduce the Public Health (Single-Use Vapes) Bill to this House. This is a short Bill with a single purpose. That purpose is to ban the sale of disposable electronic cigarettes or vapes. Like all public representatives, I regularly hear from parents, teachers and coaches who are concerned about the impact that vapes and nicotine use are having on children's health. The sight of discarded vapes littering our towns and villages is also a huge problem. Ireland has a long and proud history of tackling the public health issues caused by tobacco, dating back to our world-famous indoor smoking ban, and this Bill will continue that tradition. The Bill will remove these lower priced products from shops, which is important in making vapes less attractive and available to children. This measure will also address the environmental issues caused by the disposal of these products. The main health risk of vapes for our children is that the use of nicotine may become an addiction, which could lead to tobacco smoking and the many health harms that causes. For our young people, these products do nothing more than deliver nicotine, an addictive drug. In 2020 our Health Research Board found that adolescents who vape are more likely to smoke. Some 5% of our children smoke tobacco. Our goal is that that figure should be zero. This Bill is one of a whole suite of measures to address youth use of nicotine products. The foundational law on these products is our 2016 regulations which implemented the EU tobacco products directive. Those regulations require e-cigarette packaging to contain health warnings. They also provide for mandatory safety and quality requirements for e-cigarettes and refill containers. The regulations oblige manufacturers or importers of these products to notify the Health Service Executive of all products they place on the market. They also prohibit the advertising of e-cigarettes on television, on radio, online and in print. Today's Bill also builds on the work done in our 2023 law, the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Act, and I commend my former colleague Stephen Donnelly on his work in this area. The 2023 Act banned the sale of vapes to under-18s and further restricted advertising rules. We want to limit our children's exposure to messages that normalise or glamorise vapes. Our 2023 Act also reduced the places where vapes can be bought, with their sale through self-service vending machines, as well as on temporary premises or at events which are aimed mainly at children, banned since September. We want to break the link between these products and events or activities our young people enjoy. The new licensing system for the sale of vapes and tobacco products is designed to reflect the seriousness of these products and to help the enforcement of the law around them. It will do so by providing the national environmental health service of the HSE with up-to-date information on the businesses in operation. That requirement will come into effect for all retailers of these products in February next year. It will make Ireland one of the few countries in Europe to require an annual licence to sell these products. These are some of the measures already in place. The Minister for Health is also finalising comprehensive law on other aspects of nicotine-inhaling products and other tobacco products. The public health (tobacco products and nicotine-inhaling products) (amendment) Bill is very nearly completed. On 18 November the Government added to it measures on newer products such as nicotine pouches. These measures should be finalised early next year and they will be in addition to the comprehensive measures on vapes already in that Bill. It is very important that products such as nicotine pouches are addressed by legislation now. We saw how quickly vapes increased in use among young people and we do not want the same thing to happen with other nicotine products, so it is important we address these newer products more quickly in the knowledge that they are always evolving so quickly. That Bill will restrict the colours and imagery on the packaging of vapes and on the devices themselves to make them less attractive to our children. It will also ban devices resembling or functioning vapes as other products such as toys or games. This is to ensure that the Irish market does not see these products become multi-use devices with features that are aimed to attract our children. It will also restrict the flavours available and ban all flavour descriptors and language other than basic flavour names. This is to eliminate the marketing potential of the use of child-friendly flavour names. Finally, the Bill will ban the point-of-sale display and advertising of these products in everyday supermarkets and shops in order that our children are not exposed to these products in everyday life. I think we can all understand how a child might be attracted to vapes, with their colourful appearance, attractive flavours and flavour names and the variety on display in our ordinary grocery shops and newsagents. The new law will ensure that the visible presence of these products is reduced and that it is made clear that these products are not the same as ordinary groceries. Some of the statistics on the use of vapes by children are stark. The 2022 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study found that 19% of 12-to-17-year-old children have used a vape and 13% reported that they had used one in the past 30 days. These numbers are unacceptable, and one of my priorities as Minister of State with responsibility for public health is to take whatever action we can to bring those down to zero. It is important to note that these responses date from before the ban on their sale to minors, so that number is likely to fall, and I look forward to today's Bill reducing those numbers even further. I will now take the House through the Bill to outline the content of each section. Part 1 relates to preliminary and general matters and contains sections 1 to 8. Section 1 provides for the Short Title of the Bill and for the commencement of its sections. Section 2 is the definition section and sets out the category of products that will be prohibited from sale under this Bill. It provides that a vape must be both refillable and rechargeable, or be otherwise designed and intended to be reused, to avoid the ban. Section 3 ensures that the Bill will not apply to medical devices, accessories for a medical device or medicinal products. Section 4 is a standard section providing for the residence of a body corporate or unincorporated persons. Section 5 provides power for the Minister for Health to make regulations as needed. It also provides that any regulations must be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas. Section 6 is a standard section providing for the service of documents. Section 7 provides for a six-month transition period from the commencement of the prohibition. This gives our supermarkets, convenience stores, specialist shops and others that sell these products six months to make whatever business arrangements are necessary to comply with this prohibition. Section 8 is a standard section on expenses. Part 2 relates to the prohibition on single-use vapes and its enforcement and contains sections 9 to 13. Section 9 sets out the prohibition on the retail sale of single-use vapes in the State. It provides that it is an offence for any person to contravene it. Section 10 provides for the appointment of authorised officers for ensuring compliance with this Act. The Act will be enforced by our national environmental health service, the body that enforces the rest of our tobacco control and related law. Section 11 is a standard section that provides for the indemnification of authorised officers. Section 12 provides for the powers of our environmental health officers to ensure compliance with the Act. This includes powers to enter a premises if there are reasonable grounds to believe that vapes will be found there or documents or other records relating to vapes; to inspect such premises and take copies of documents or records; to remove and detain any vape, or component of a vape, or any documents or records, where the officer has reasonable cause to suspect that there has been a contravention of this Act; and to require any person to provide relevant information, including for the purposes of ascertaining the ownership of websites. Section 13 provides for a prohibition notice in the case of contravention of section 9. A prohibition notice can direct a person that the contravention should cease immediately, require a single-use vape to be withdrawn or recalled from the market, or require that a single-use vape be disposed of or destroyed. The Bill provides for an appeal against a prohibition notice to the District Court within seven days. It also provides that if a prohibition notice has been served, but the contravention continues, the national environmental health service can apply for a High Court order to prohibit that continuation. Part 3 is on penalties and miscellaneous provisions. It covers sections 14 to 20, inclusive. Section 14 provides for penalties for first and subsequent offences under the Act. A person guilty of an offence under the Act is liable for a first offence to a fine of up to €4,000, or to imprisonment for a term of up to six months, or to both. For any subsequent offence a guilty person is liable to a fine of up to €5,000, or to imprisonment for a term of up to 12 months, or to both. Section 15 is a standard provision on defences for offences under the Act. Section 16 is a standard section that provides for the liability of officers of a corporate body in the case of an offence by that corporate body. Section 17 allows the national environmental health service of the HSE to bring proceedings for an offence under this Act. In addition, it provides that on conviction, the court can order the person convicted to pay the costs and expenses incurred in relation to the investigation, detection and prosecution of the offence. Section 18 provides that offences may be prosecuted up to 12 months after being committed. Section 19 provides for an offence of providing false or misleading information in purported compliance with this Act. Section 20 provides for a process of disclosure which includes protections against the sharing of information that is legally privileged. It is important to say that 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. Single-use vapes are designed to be cheap, attractive and easy to use. They contribute to the normalisation of nicotine use and pose significant environmental and public health risks. This Bill prioritises the protection of children and young people from these harmful and addictive substances. I look forward to working with Deputies to progress this Bill through the Oireachtas. I know it is an issue that all public representatives are concerned about. I hope they will work with me on this issue. This is about protecting health and well-being, particularly for our children. I commend this Bill to this House.

The Bill proposes to ban single-use vapes and creates a framework to achieve this. The ban will be in effect within six months of the commencement of section 7 of the Act, as the Minister said. I support this Bill because it is simple in what it seeks to achieve, which is to ban single-use vapes. I will offer my opinion on, and a critique of, the Government's wider approach to this issue. I will first talk about single-use vapes. We are already seeing the industry attempting to get around these measures. We have seen that in Britain where vapes have become rechargeable, even though they are still single use. There are at all times attempts by industry to circumvent the Act. This is the problem. We have a Government that has never got ahead of this problem and has taken a piecemeal approach. I was a member of the Oireachtas health committee when the original Bill on vaping came before it. We raised issues about single-use vapes, flavouring, advertising and other issues. No such measures were included in the Bill that was before us at the time. We were told that a parallel Bill was being worked on. Ever since, the legislation has not been satisfactory and we have seen the piecemeal approach. All the while, the industry is watching and trying to get ahead of the Government, which is not too difficult, given its piecemeal approach. We in the Oireachtas need to ensure we are setting regulations in a timely manner, are ahead of the industry and are not always falling behind and playing catch-up. I make that point because it is a reality from my perspective and needs to be said. We must protect children and limit the impact that vaping has on them. I know, and everybody else in the House knows, that the industry is cleverly targeting coloured and flavoured vapes and packaging at children. This has been going on for far too long. Obviously, bans on advertising are part of the solution. We need to limit flavours. However, I think there is a rush in this House too often to ban everything and not to consider a more balanced approach. I have spoken to many vapers over the course of the past number of years, and particularly in recent months as Bills such as this have come before us. I know there are different opinions as to whether vaping is a step down from smoking and whether it is something that is a good aid to act as a replacement for smoking. I think that if somebody who was smoking long term switched to vaping, it would be a better option. I would obviously want a person to neither smoke nor use a vape. That is the ideal scenario. However, we must be grown up and accept that people smoke and use vapes. We must ensure that we take a balanced approach. I do not believe that banning every other flavour and moving to a tobacco-flavoured option is a balanced approach. It could create more problems. I know from talking to people who vape that they would see that approach as over the top and a typical reaction whereby we rush to ban everything rather than listening to people who vape. My primary concern in relation to everything we do is protecting children and ensuring that by way of controlling sales, advertising, flavouring and packaging, we do everything possible to limit the ability of the industry to target children in the very obvious way it does. Any measures or Parts of a Bill that come before me and do that will have my full support and that of my party. I have, as I said, a concern about the lack of consistency from the Government and its lack of coherence. This is the third Bill, as I understand it, in the past three years. We are expecting at least one more Bill and possibly another. There is at least one more Bill coming. It is not the most coherent way to deal with a matter as substantial as this. I will be supporting this Bill because it is clear and simple in what it does. I would, however, caution the Government and the Minister of State by saying that we must watch out because the industry is already trying to get ahead of this. It is looking at laws such as this and finding ways around them. That is unacceptable. We must ensure that laws can be changed quickly if they need to be, by way of amendments, to ensure that we stay ahead of any attempt to circumvent the intent of this Bill and do not fall behind.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill from my perspective as Sinn Féin's spokesperson on education and youth. Sinn Féin supports a ban on single-use vapes. We have called for a ban for years. They are an environmental scourge and a public health concern. Their proliferation has been a testament to regulatory failure. While we support this specific measure, we must criticise the Government's entire approach to this issue. The Bill in isolation is akin to using a plaster to treat a major wound. It is emblematic of a reactive, piecemeal and painfully slow strategy that is constantly years behind the curve. My primary concern is the deliberate and cynical targeting of young people by this industry. All we have to do is to open our eyes and look at these products and how they are promoted. We can see it clearly. This is a campaign of attraction aimed at children and teenagers. We are not talking about subtle marketing. We are talking about a full-spectrum assault on young senses. Vapes come in flavours that belong in a sweet shop like bubblegum, tutti-frutti, or ice cream sundae. They are packaged in lurid, neon colours with designs that would not look out of place on a gaming console or toy. They are small, sleek and discreet. This is not by accident, it is by design. It is the playbook of big tobacco repackaged for a new generation. They are creating a gateway, hooking young people on nicotine with a product that feels harmless, fashionable and sweet. It is working. Talk to any teacher, parent or youth worker and they will describe the alarming prevalence among young people. Young people who have never touched a cigarette are now addicted to nicotine, believing they are inhaling harmless water vapour, not a cocktail of chemicals whose long-term effects we are only beginning to understand. This Bill bans one type of product, the single-use vape. What about the reusable vapes that come in those same child-friendly flavours and packages? What about the online advertising that still finds its way to young eyes? What about the retailers who, despite the law, continue to sell to minors? The Government's approach of addressing this issue one Bill at a time every year or so is failing our young people. We do not need another piecemeal intervention in 2026 and another in 2027 and so on. We need modern, comprehensive and dynamic legislation now. We need to fairly examine and then implement strict regulations on flavourings and packaging to break this direct marketing line to children. As Deputy Cullinane has said and as some have suggested, this does not mean restricting flavours to tobacco only. That would be excessive and counter-productive for adult smokers seeking a less harmful alternative. It does mean banning the clearly child-oriented flavours and garish toy-like packaging that serves no public health purpose. Public policy must be balanced. It must ensure that vaping remains a route out of smoking for adults, not an attractive gateway in for non-smoking young people. It must protect our children from predatory commercial practices while supporting informed adult choice. This ban is a step but it is only a small step on a journey the Government is taking at a snail's pace. Our young people need us to run. They need a comprehensive strategy that tackles availability, marketing, flavours and packaging in one coherent, robust piece of legislation. We cannot allow another year to pass when a new generation is lured into nicotine addiction by flavours of bubblegum, rainbows, unicorns and whatever you are having yourself. Sinn Féin will support this Bill but we demand the Government follows it immediately with the comprehensive action our children deserve. Enough with this piecemeal approach. Let us protect our young people.

I am glad this Bill is being brought forward today and I welcome the ban on single-use vapes. Vapes are something that we really need to get a grip on. I also agree that unfortunately, the Government is playing catch-up. Selling to under-18s is still continuing. The HSE is not carrying out enough inspections, and convictions for the sale of vapes to children and young people are still extremely low. We only need to open our eyes as we walk around our constituencies and communities to see children and young people openly vaping on their way to school and home from school, and in places where young people hang around. It is deeply worrying. These products should not be in the hands of children. Investigations into vape shops reveal widespread non-compliance, with one Dublin probe finding illegal sales at 13 out of the 16 stores visited. The HSE found that 20% of retailers failed to meet age-restricted sales requirements, leading to thousands of vape seizures and closure orders against dozens of premises. Even the scale and number of shops where they are being sold pales into insignificance compared to the problem we are seeing with vapes. The Journal did an undercover survey and found illegal vapes that breach EU rules on warnings, nicotine and tank size were being sold at 80% of the places they went to. Those were not even within EU rules. It is just shocking. We have no idea what these people are ingesting. There is evidence that vapes can have a real impact on reducing cigarette use and can help people to come off cigarettes. Of course that is really welcome. It is the way they are being marketed, produced, sold and targeted that is of real concern to anybody in the community. I know of people who have never smoked or touched a cigarette in their life and are now vaping to beat the band. It is just shocking that there is now this method, which is sold and marketed as described earlier, with all the different flavours and colours. It is marketed at people to get them hooked on nicotine, pure and simple. The only purpose of vapes is to get people hooked into nicotine. That is of real concern. I was just doing some research and noticed the chemicals that are in there such as formaldehyde, carcinogens, leading to lung scarring, heart disease, neurological issues and obviously addiction to nicotine. That is in the legal stuff. That is what we know in terms of the legal vapes. The illegal ones are absolutely frightening. The last thing I will touch on is the environmental piece. It is addressed in the Bill which is really welcome. I am a volunteer with Clonsilla Tidy Towns and the Royal Canal clean-up. We have great groups in Blanchardstown and Castleknock that are helping to clean up the environment. Schools are constantly at it, making people aware of environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of what makes up the vapes are quite worrying. They are just thrown on the streets, in our parks, rivers and lakes. All of that is leaking into our environment. I welcome the Bill. There has to be a far more comprehensive response to vapes. It needs to be quicker. This industry has positive elements in trying to help people come off cigarettes. We can separate that piece to ensure we can keep that in place and help those people. The studies show that it is more effective in helping people to reduce their cigarette use or come off cigarettes than some of the other nicotine replacement products. The downside of it is worse, however. We have to get the balance right. It is clear that those who are producing these vapes are definitely targeting young people. If we can get a grip on that, it would be a really important piece of work for our young people. We have taken major strides in stopping young people from smoking. We need to put the same effort, time and energy into ensuring that people do not just swap and that industry does not use this as an opportunity to say it recognises cigarettes are bad and dangerous. Most of society views cigarettes now as something that should be in the past. We cannot let vapes become something of the future.

The Labour Party welcomes and supports this Bill to ban single-use vapes. We also want to make it clear that this is one small part of an overall jigsaw that is required in a public health and environmental response to vaping. There has been an explosion in the number of people vaping over the past decade. There are figures reporting 7% of adults and 16% of 15- to 16-year-olds are currently vaping. The Lancet back in 2023 reported that in 2015, 10% of young people were vaping and now that is up to 30%. Any of us walking around our communities can see that with our eyes. Anybody involved in Tidy Towns can tell us what is happening on our streets. That requires a response. I accept the bona fides of vaping in terms of harm reduction and assisting people in smoking cessation. That is true for many adults, but there is also another reality and another clear picture out there that a new dependency has emerged. For us, this is one small piece of the overall public health response that needs to happen. We look forward to the Bill that will regulate advertising. The advertising for nicotine inhaling products is probably an even bigger issue. We also need to make sure that we future-proof the legislation. It might be vapes of a particular type today. We spent a lot of time during the summer talking about HSC vapes. We are now talking about the legal vapes. There will be another product into the future. The reality for us at the moment is that the nicotine industry, because that is who is driving the sale and growth of vapes, are creating a new generation of dependants to effectively generate a profit. There is emerging evidence from within medicine that there is a high level of correlation between vaping and sleep issues, anxiety, heart and lung damage and toxin exposure. We have heard from some school principals reporting increased irritability among secondary school students. We are still very much in the infancy of vaping. It is going to be a while before we will see the long-term impacts. The critical thing is that we are not waiting around like we did many decades ago with smoking to see what the long-term impacts are. The State needs to respond. Regarding the environmental reasoning behind this Bill, there is a clear environmental purpose to this Bill. A total of 31 million vapes were sold in Ireland last year. Yet just 1.1 million vapes were recycled. Thirty-one million vapes is one third of all electronic devices sold in Ireland. I was shocked when I saw those figures. The reality is that vapes are simply not being recycled. There are clear concerns about the level of awareness out there about how to dispose of the waste. Effectively, this is an electrical good. They are a significant source of litter containing both plastic and lithium-ion batteries. We cannot tolerate the throwing away into general waste of vapes. There are significant issues here. There is the banning of the single-use vape, but also the compliance with the waste electrical and electronic equipment, WEEE, directive of vapes that can be used repeatedly. While there are those products out there, there are key concerns with regard to the price point of those products, which would bring into question the incentive of any individual to recycle or do something with the vape when they are priced at such a low point. Enforcement is going to be very important now with regards to the ban on the single-use vapes, but also in terms of the appropriate disposal of the multiuse vapes as well. Regarding the health issue, nicotine is highly addictive and harmful. It has an impact on adolescent brain development. Yet, significant numbers of teenagers and young people are now vaping. As Deputy Donnelly eloquently said, there are people who never smoked who are now taking up vaping. That has to be a public health concern. We cannot have a new generation - another generation - effectively addicted to nicotine products with all the issues that go by that. There is a certain irony here that there has been longstanding target of Government, which was set back in 2013, to have smoking prevalence at a rate of 5% by this year. The figures are three or four times that at the moment, but we have a target for the reduction of smoking. We do not have anything with regards to vaping. We need to look at that. Regarding single-use versus the multiuse vapes, the price point is something that we need to look at. We in the Labour Party urge the Minister of State to give serious consideration to minimum pricing, or indeed a taxation. Again, there will be people looking at this who want to give up smoking. They are looking for an alternative and want that help. I accept that they would feel aggrieved when they heard that message, but we have to look at who is taking up vaping who has never smoked a day in their life and wonder how we can tackle some of that as well. We asked a parliamentary question in September as to the Department of Health's initiatives regarding vaping cessation. There is a well-established smoking cessation programme, which is decently funded by the Department, in place now for many years. When we asked the question about somebody who presents who wants to give up vaping, we are told that the Department has no funding in place. That is a concern. This would not require a large amount of money. If we are serious about recognising the health impacts and that significant numbers of young people are taking up vaping, we need to have a vaping cessation programme that may or may not look like the smoking cessation programme. It certainly needs to be developed. My final message is that we welcome this Bill. We will support the passage of this Bill, but we want to see an awful lot more coming from the Department of Health with regards to vaping. To be frank about it, the Department is hugely behind the curve. We worry about industry pressure on the Department given the very slow pace of bringing initiatives to the Dáil and Seanad on vaping. The crystal clear thing has to be that we recognise that vaping is a significant issue now in our society both in health and environmental terms. The Government needs to get to grip with it.

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.

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

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill this afternoon. It is really important. There is not a shop you can go to in the country where you will not see bins outside the door littered with these awful looking disposable vapes. There is also some kind of trend to stick the stickers peeled off the top of these disposable vapes all over the bin. They just seem to be everywhere. I will get to the health hazards in a moment but, from an environmental point of view, these horrible little glowing neon plastic modules are flung around everywhere. It is worrying that, in recent years, we have seen the rate of vaping among young people increase at the same time that the rate of smoking nicotine products seems to be decreasing. I was on the previous Committee on Health, which looked at this matter, and I believe the increase is down to the way these products are packaged and sold. They are seen as quite trendy. Young people are encouraged to take up these products. I would be very supportive of anything that curtails their use. The public health Act of 2023 brought in licensing fees for the sale of tobacco and nicotine products. Before that legislation was passed, there was a registration fee of €50 per annum per retail premises regardless of how big or small the premises was. Now, there is a charge of €1,000 for the sale of tobacco products and €800 for the sale of nicotine products. The combined cost for a retailer is therefore €1,800 per annum. I have no issue with the cost. However, I have spoken to the Minister of State in the past and she will know I have an issue with the small retailer, a small shop in a village, paying the very same rate as Lidl, Aldi, Dunnes Stores, Tesco and so on. That is fundamentally wrong. There should be a far higher licensing fee for those huge retailers and a more minor charge for others. They are not at fault here. We need to home in on the companies that manufacture these vapes, sell them and market them to young people. I hope that can be looked at. The Minister of State and I have had several chats on the matter. I hope that, as this Bill and other legislation teed up in the Minister of State's Department progress, some amendment to the 2023 public health Act can be brought forward so that this punitive charge is not imposed on the small retailer and that a greater portion is paid by larger retailers. I welcome to the Public Gallery students from Rice College in Ennis. These are the last few days of their school term before they wrap up for Christmas. They have come up to Leinster House and the Dáil today. They are having a nice day out. I welcome all the boys and girls from third year in Rice College who are here today. They may have come in at the end of the debate. For the next while, we will be debating disposable vapes and how the Government can legislate to ensure fewer young people take up vaping. It is very harmful for your health. The Government feels that these disposable vapes - we all know the brand names - are plastic and are usually chucked away after being used. They are very hazardous to the environment as well as being hazardous to your health. I wish the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, all the staff and all Members of the House a very happy Christmas.

I join with Deputy Crowe in his welcome to our guests in the Public Gallery. I hope they enjoy their day here in Leinster House and the debate we are now having.

We have all seen the huge upsurge in the use of vapes. We have seen them normalised. An awful lot of us would have probably been happy in the initial period. At this stage, we know an awful lot of people who have used vaping as a means of getting off cigarettes and that is the piece that needs to be protected. However, anybody who has walked around any town or city will have seen the place absolutely littered with single-use vapes and, as has been said previously, you do not have to put your head into the bins to see them. They are multicoloured. The attempt to sell them to a younger audience is absolutely huge and it is no shock that big tobacco is behind a huge amount of this. It needs to get a number of new clients hooked because that is the history of what it is has done. We need to protect against this. The idea of banning single-use vapes and finding a framework to do this is something we support, but it would be fair to say the way this issue of regulating vapes has been tackled by the Government has been slipshod. We have had numerous pieces of legislation and dealt with all these issues on a piecemeal basis. We should just get our act together on this. We know the issues that exist around advertising as regard flavourings. I am not talking about an outright ban, with the only thing allowed being a tobacco flavouring, but we need to look at this. I do not think the Government deciding to jack up the taxation on vapes was particularly helpful. It has created an issue for those people I spoke about earlier who are using vapes as a means of staying off cigarettes. We can all see the benefits there from a health point of view. While it is far from perfect to be vaping, it is a lot better than to be engaging in smoking, as regards carbon monoxide and all the other poisons that are delivered by cigarettes. If we were being serious about this, we would tackle the whole sphere. We would start with the issue that exists around this normalisation and the fact a huge number of kids and others have been impacted by HHC. We know the huge impact that has had on some and, unfortunately, as a gateway to other drugs beyond. We know the health implications in general in relation to regular vapes. I do not think there is any parent who has not done an inspection around their own house to make sure there is not a plentiful supply there, and I cannot say that has always been successful either. That is the world we are living in. We have to make it somewhat better from the point of view of these being not as readily available, particularly to children, to whom they should not be sold in any way, shape or form. We need to make sure we have sufficient leverage to deal with that. We need to make sure single-use vapes, which are an absolute disaster even from an environmental point of view, are dealt with, and we need to make sure we do everything from the point of view of looking after those who use vaping as a means of staying off cigarettes. We know a greater level of support is required for that but we need to make sure we do not allow big tobacco to sell to another cohort of people and get them addicted. It is particularly unacceptable that children would suffer as a result of this. Therefore, we have to put the supports in.

The Social Democrats welcome this long-overdue legislation to ban single-use vapes. However, I do have some outstanding concerns about the Government's plans. The first relates to the Minister's piecemeal approach to regulating vapes. We are still waiting for legislation on packaging, advertising, flavours and other products such as nicotine pouches. Second, I have real concerns about the strength of the legislation. From my reading of the Bill, it may be outdated before it even gets onto the Statute Book. In October, the WHO published a report on global tobacco-use trends. Since 2000, the WHO found that the number of people using tobacco has dropped by 120 million, which is a 27% drop. However, vapes were found to be fuelling a new wave of nicotine addiction, particularly in Europe. Adult vape use in Europe was found to be 4.6%, more than double the global average. Most alarmingly, the WHO found that Ireland has an adult vaping rate of 11.2%, putting us fourth highest out of 85 countries. In response, the WHO general secretary said: ... the tobacco industry is fighting back with new nicotine products, aggressively targeting young people. Governments must act faster and stronger in implementing proven tobacco control policies. Among children and young people, vaping rates are even higher. The 2024 Healthy Ireland survey found that 17% of 15- to 24-year-olds reported using vapes either daily or occasionally. This compared with just 11% two years previously, in 2022. While a European school survey project for 15- and 16-year-olds in Ireland found that 32% had tried vapes, 16% were current users and 7% reported daily use. The most common age at which people started using a vape was 14. These figures, while shocking, should not come as a surprise. Successive Ministers have allowed vaping rates to surge with their indecision. In failing to act decisively, the crisis has been allowed to escalate. It is not like vaping companies have been subtle about their tactics. They have continually blatantly advertised their products towards children. Flavours like cotton candy, cherry cola and bubblegum are readily available in every corner shop. They are displayed like pick-and-mix rather than highly addictive products. Recently, I was at a good briefing organised by HSE south west for Oireachtas Members. One of the focuses was on vaping. They gave us results of a study of 700 young people from Cork city who had completed the study by the Cork children and young people's services committee on vaping. One in four of those young people in Cork said the biggest challenge facing young people was vaping. One in three said the worst thing about Cork was vaping - maybe a sign of how great Cork is - while one in ten would ban or reduce the availability vapes around Cork city. Therefore, even young people want action and want these vapes banned and restricted. The HSE briefing was also really alarming in terms of the effects around how addictive vapes are. They showed an increased risk of asthma, an increased risk of depression, risks around oral health, lower sperm count, headaches and dizziness. They were really concerning reports from the HSE about the impact on young people and also the views of young people themselves in my city of Cork about how they want this regulated. A ban on single-use vapes is long overdue. Why the delay on the Bill on packaging, advertising and flavours as well? That is a crucial part of it. We know this is how they are marketing and how they are targeting these young people. Young people are saying they want action here. It has now been 15 months since the previous Minister for Health secured Government approval for that Bill. Since the current Minister for Health took office, it has been listed as a legislative priority but there is still now sign of it. Fifteen months on, it is still listed. We are still waiting. How much more time does the Minister need to get this done? Unlike the Bill before us, my understanding is that that second Bill will need to go through an EU notification process under the technical standards directive, further delaying that implementation. However, if it can be done more quickly, as Deputy Ward has suggested, by amending this Bill on Committee Stage, we will absolutely support that. This needs to happen and the delay has been far too long. These reforms need to happen together. It is a mistake to wait and delay because the crucial issue is how they are targeting young people with the flavours, colours and marketing. The Minister is very concerned about productivity in the health services and she constantly refers at the health committee to productivity across the health service. Looking at her own legislative output this year, however, she should reflect on her own productivity, particularly when it comes to legislation. We are waiting too long for these Bills to come through, particularly the other Bill approved 15 months ago, on which we are still waiting. We must also not lose sight of the fact that a considerable share of the vape market in Ireland and internationally is controlled by the tobacco industry. It recognised the trends and adapted quickly, recruiting a new generation of addicted customers to feed its profits. The companies behind Marlboro and P.J. Carroll both have vape lines, while Elf Bar and Lost Mary, the disposable vape brands that have captured the Irish market, are manufactured by ambiguous companies in China. According to the Irish Heart Foundation, reports show that the vape market in China is now overseen by that state's national tobacco corporation and the state's tobacco monopoly administration. It does not stop at vapes, however. The tobacco industry is also behind the emerging market for nicotine pouches, which are being cynically marketed at young people. Last August, the Irish Cancer Society highlighted that big tobacco was now front and centre at a string of festivals and concerts in Ireland heavily promoting its nicotine products and pouches. The main brands, Velo and Nordic Spirit, are owned by British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International, respectively. I am alarmed by the level of lobbying that has been going on, particularly by some of the vape retailers. Not long ago, one of those retailers - perhaps the leading one - was offering its customers €20 in phone credit for making submissions to the Government's consultation on vaping. It is really concerning that a company with vested interests would do that. I fully accept that vapes have a place in the market as a smoking cessation tool. I support Deputy Sherlock's call that more be done in terms of provision of vaping cessation programmes. The move towards stricter regulation of the vaping market is not about penalising those who use vaping to stop smoking. It is about ensuring a whole new generation of people do not become addicted to nicotine. We simply can no longer bury our heads in the sand. A balance must be struck. A total of 31 million vapes were sold in Ireland last year. That should be setting off alarm bells. Aside from the obvious health implications, there are also environmental impacts from single-use vapes. Looking around any city, town or village, one will see vape packaging and stickers all around. Many vape users are not disposing of their devices properly. The only effective way to address this is to ban disposable vapes. While I fully support the Bill's principles, I have concerns about the adequacy of its provisions. The vape manufacturers seem already to be ahead of the legislation. In most shops right now, if I were to ask for a Lost Mary disposable vape, I would be handed one that has a charging port and a removable pre-filled pod, as in the picture I have in my hand. This model is sold as a disposable vape and generally costs no more than €10. Even if it could be reused, there is little incentive to do so. The recent addition of these charging ports and removable pods was done purely as a pre-emptive measure to exploit a loophole. We must close that loophole in this Bill. Nobody is reusing these products; they are being treated as disposable. Even if somebody tried to buy a refill pod for them, it probably is not possible. I have not seen refill pods on sale alongside these vapes in any store. The charging port and removable pod are little more than props designed to circumvent the forthcoming ban. This needs to be addressed on Committee Stage. The other issue of concern is the language used in the Bill's definition of single-use vapes. Section 2(1) defines them as follows: "single-use vape" means a vape that is not designed or intended to be re-used and includes any vape that is— (a) not refillable, or (b) not rechargeable My concern is with the use of the word "or" instead of "and". Both the Department and the Oireachtas Library and Research Service use "and" in their briefing documents. The Bill digest states that "a vape will only be considered reusable, and therefore legal to sell, if it is both rechargeable and refillable (not just one or the other)". The use of "or" in the Bill is somewhat confusing and clarity is needed in this regard. A vape should only be considered reusable if it is genuinely both rechargeable and refillable. The wording in the Bill means a vape could be considered reusable if it has one of those features. This would be a major issues because there are large disposable vapes on the market that last for the equivalent of ten standard disposable vapes. While these large vapes can be recharged for a period and might last ten times longer than a standard disposable vape, they are not refillable. For the legislation to be effective, enforcement is important. As we know, the existing laws are already being breached by some retailers. In 2024, the HSE carried out 249 vape-related inspections. Those checks found that 55 of the inspected retailers were selling vapes that breached the EU regulations. Last month, the HSE confirmed to the Irish Independent that 40 retailers in 2024 were found to be breaking the law by selling vapes to children. Following the passage of the legislation, the HSE's national environmental health service role will increase. Will the service's enforcement capacity and budget for authorised officers be expanded to ensure the ban can be enforced on a national basis? It is really important that it has the resources to enforce the ban. If we pass this law, we must resource the HSE to do effective enforcement. Is work under way to recruit to the additional posts that will be needed? I note that the Bill's regulatory impact assessment estimates funding of €3.1 million per year will be required. My understanding is that the EU notification process can take up to six months. Has that process begun or can it not commence until the legislation is passed? I am conscious that the upcoming public health (tobacco products and nicotine inhaling products) (amendment) Bill will also require notification at EU level. Will the Minister of State outline the expected timelines for the introduction of both Bills in practice? Will the supplementary legislation and this Bill be commenced in tandem or separately? The Social Democrats will support the Bill to progress to Committee Stage. However, there are gaps in it that need to be addressed. I sincerely hope the Minister of State will work constructively with us to strengthen the Bill. We have a shared aim in this matter. At the Working Group of Committee Cathaoirligh last week, the Taoiseach said the Government would engage with the Opposition on amendments and that he is always open to accepting amendments. That has not been my experience to date of the Department of Health, with none of the amendments put forward so far from the Opposition benches being accepted. I hope the Minister of State will take the message from the Taoiseach that amendments from the Opposition benches will be accepted. I will be proposing constructive amendments to improve the legislation, close the loopholes and ensure we have an effective ban in place. I really hope the Minister of State will work with me in good faith to ensure we have the best legislation possible. We all want to get this right, first and foremost to protect children. We are up against a tobacco industry that is not going down without a fight. It will exploit every single loophole. That is why we need to ensure the legislation is watertight. We need a Bill that will stand the test of time, not one that will be obsolete on arrival.

I welcome the Bill but it is too slow in what it proposes to implement. The tobacco industry is very quick at coming up with new and innovative ways of delivering nicotine to individuals, getting them addicted to its products and keeping its bottom line very healthy while everyone else suffers from those products. Rather than waiting years to deal with these issues, we need to be much more proactive. While my colleague has spoken specifically about vapes, I will focus on nicotine pouches, which should be incorporated in the provisions of the Bill. As the Minister of State knows, these small pouches are placed between the gum and inner lip. They are very discreet, which is why a lot of students like them. They can use them during school time and can very easily hide them from their parents. They are being marketed really aggressively at students. They can be bought in any corner shop. They come in cool little packages with very funky designs and, similar to vapes, they are flavoured to appeal to schoolchildren. These products are incredibly strong, with a single pouch having up to 30 mg of nicotine. This compares with a single cigarette delivering 1 mg to 2 mg of nicotine into the smoker's system. One pouch could be as strong as an entire pack of cigarettes. There are students buying them and using them throughout the school day. It is nearly two years exactly since I first raised this issue with the then Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly. He said at the time that pouches were not really an issue here and the matter was being looked at by the EU. Two years down the road, nothing has been done. There are no controls over the usage or sale of nicotine pouches. I am really concerned about the impact on young people in particular. The Minister of State mentioned during the summer that she was very keen to deal with these products. I really welcome that but I ask that it be done at speed. They have been available to students for two years now. We have a whole cohort of students who have become addicted to them over that two-year period. We cannot afford to allow that to continue any longer. I recently had a 17-year-old tell me that they had not taken a nicotine pouch for eight days and they were so pleased with themselves. That is what we are talking about. This is something I have seen in schools in Wicklow, but I know it is an issue across the country. The principals association has repeatedly raised this as an issue. Principals have asked for guidance from the HSE to be sent to schools because they are sort of in a limbo land with this. I do not believe that guidance has been sent, but that is something very simple that should happen immediately to assist school communities deal with this scourge. I also have major concerns about promotions by different companies. It is possible to get vapes for free by logging in online with these companies. They will send out a free sample. They can also be accessed free at concerts. These companies promote concerts. There is a lot of money going into promoting vapes because they know there is a huge market of young people that are willing to utilise their products, but those young people will pay a very high price for this. That is something we need to address urgently. I ask that the Minister deals with the issue in this Bill. It is not just a question of dealing with the age limit, because my understanding is that when she spoke about the Bill, it was primarily to ensure that tobacco pouches cannot be sold to under-18s, but similar to vapes, it is not just the question of age, it is the flavourings, accessibility and the designs on them. They are very attractive products to a young person. I ask that the Minister would examine all those issues. Pouches are very similar to vapes. As we are dealing with the vapes, I urge her to please deal with these other products. Not only that, but will she please future-proof the legislation because, as we can see, the innovations from the tobacco industry are just being pumped out so we need to get ahead of all these things? Perhaps it could be done through a regulatory framework rather than it having to be done through legislation all the time. Any nicotine products should be able to be dealt with quickly by the Minister for Health if she deems it appropriate and if that is what the health recommendations are. I thank the Minister of State for considering that. I will follow it up. I would really like to see movement. In particular, it would be a good move if the Minister could get the guidelines out to schools.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber to present this important legislation. I welcome this valuable Bill although, as I will speak to in a moment, the scope of it is far too narrow. I would like to put a few questions to the Minister of State on that and she might be able to address them in her wrap-up. As a starting point, we cannot be in any doubt that when we consider the prevalence of vaping and the growth in its use, particularly among young people, greater regulation is needed from a public health perspective. To put it very simply, products containing nicotine are addictive and harmful. When we see such a huge uptake in vaping, it must be treated as a public health issue. It should not be viewed, as some might advocate, as somehow better because vapes do not contain the degree of potency of ordinary cigarettes. I am sure the Minister of State has often heard the Taoiseach describe vapes as the revenge of the tobacco industry. I fully agree with him on that particular point. It looks like around 50 million vapes will be sold in Ireland this year with a value of about €400 million. The industry has grown from nothing in a very sudden and dramatic fashion. Almost all the disposable vapes that are consumed in Ireland come from China. Their sale is banned among teenagers in China, but they are exported here where they are freely consumed. Vape companies are making huge profits from making nicotine addicts. The products are clearly marketed at children. They have flavours like bubblegum, cotton candy and marshmallow. These are clearly designed to be attractive to children and young people, to get them consuming them and to put them at risk of addiction to these unhealthy but also costly products. Almost every European country, including Ireland, has a form of basic regulation with respect to vapes and e-cigarettes, but the trend recently has been not only to tighten the level of restrictions and to tighten sales, but also to tighten the flavourings used in vapes. That is the case in Belgium, France and in Germany. The UK has gone even further and has introduced a ban on disposable vapes in their entirety. While the public health element is foremost in our minds in this Bill and in the role of the Minister of State, public health is not the only issue in that there is an environmental impact as well, in particular when it comes to disposable vapes. When my former Green Party colleague Ossian Smyth was a Minister of State, he led the charge on that environmental point in the previous Government. He worked very closely with the former Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, to develop legislation that was comprehensive on the issue of vaping. That Bill sought to ban disposable vapes, limit vape flavours to tobacco, as other countries are now doing, and ban point-of-sale display and advertising of vape products in shops other than in vape shops. That was comprehensive legislation and Cabinet approval was sought and achieved for it in September 2024. Over a year later I am curious as to why it has taken so long for this legislation to appear, given there had been approval for the heads of the Bill and for it to come to the House for a Second Stage debate. Why has the Bill shrunk so dramatically in that time period? That is not really clear from what has been presented to us today. What is the reason for that delay and why are two Bills necessary to deal with the issues given that when the Cabinet gave approval to the measures in September last year they were very easily comprehended within a single Bill? The work was done back then. The heads of the Bill were ready to go. While I welcome this Bill, and will support it, how is it that the really valuable work on environmental health and public health measures that had already received Cabinet approval have been left on the long finger? One or two others Deputies asked this question, which I ask the Minister of State to address in her conclusions. I refer to engagement with the EU on technical regulation information systems notifications. When a member state is looking to put a significant restriction on a product freely in circulation across member states, there has to be a notification process. Have the Government started the notification process or is it waiting for this Bill to pass before it does so? If the Minister is taking that approach, I urge her to reconsider and to start the recognition and regulation process now, because the earlier we start the better. If we do the two processes - the consideration of the Bill in this House and in the other House, and the engagement with the European authorities - at the same time, that will allow us to enjoy the important health and environmental benefits from this legislation at an earlier time. On a broader point, in 2023 legislation was passed to prevent the sale of vapes to children and to only permit the sale of vapes through licensed retailers in the same way tobacco retailers are licensed. We all know that Bill is not being fully followed. It is clear that vapes are still being sold in unlicensed premises such as mobile phone shops, and they are being sold to children. I am curious as to why a retail licensing system under the 2023 legislation has not been set up yet. Why is it still possible that vapes are being sold to children? If legislation that has been on the books for more than two years is not being fully enforced, I wonder how the Minister of State can be confident that the valuable new rules that she is looking to bring through in this legislation will be enforced, which is a worry. A number of Deputies have raised tobacco pouches and how they have become incredibly prevalent in terms of consumption, and how they are being advertised very widely in a wide range of social situations. The tobacco industry seems to have moved another step forward. It has almost gotten past vapes before the legislation has caught up. I urge the Minister of State and the Government to look at this point. We all recognise that we did not legislate in time for vapes. Vapes were allowed to take hold. They were allowed be making the sales of 50 million units every year in Ireland. They were earning €400 million in income for their producers without a proper regulatory framework being put in place. We are only catching up on part of that right now in the Bill. Let us not make that same mistake again. We have the opportunity. Tobacco pouches are about to become a major public health issue. Let us not wait like we did with vapes. Let us act quickly and bring forward legislation based on science. That requires the Department undertaking some serious research. The precautionary principle needs to apply here. We know for 40, 50 or 60 years that the tobacco industry lied about the impact of cigarettes. That is a proven statement. We know that it took us too long to understand the impact of vapes, particularly on young people. Let us not allow that delay to take place when it comes to tobacco pouches. Let us take a precautionary approach. Let us limit their sales at least away from those under 18. Adults, of course, can make choices of their own. When it comes to protecting children, we need to act now, not delay, adopt a precautionary principle approach and ensure that we can protect young people from any potential health risks and harms that come from tobacco pouches. When we even think of what they are composed of, we have to strongly suspect that there are going to be long-term health risks from them. I thank the Minister of State for the opportunity to speak on this. I look forward to supporting this Bill, but it is important that she answers those questions about why the other important elements that Cabinet had previously given approval to - elements that would have improved environmental health and public health - have been left out. If they are not being included in this Bill, when will the Minister of State bring them forward?

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this. I have huge concerns about vaping and have had for quite some time, particularly about the issue of vaping companies targeting young people as part of their marketing strategy. This is very compelling marketing strategy and it has been a successful strategy. Vape companies are using beautiful scents and smells and so on and presenting vapes as fun, almost like a toy. If children went into a vape shop, I am sure they would think that they were some beautiful sweets or toys. They are presented like bubblegum, candy, fruit or cocktails. The colours are always so bright, colourful and so appealing to young people. It is not accidental; it is a deliberate strategy. It is therefore not surprising that the numbers of people who are vaping today have never actually smoked a cigarette. A total of 76% of young vapers have never smoked a cigarette. It is not a step-down option for people in many instances. Indeed, it is a gateway into smoking and harder drugs. In 2019, of those among 15-year-olds and 16-year-olds, just 9% of that cohort used vapes. Last year, that was 23%. It is a significant rise. It is time that this House brought in legislation to target this. The market is worth over €200 million a year. I urge the Minister of State to ensure that we have legislation, that we bring in legislation that would limit vape flavours and that we would introduce a ban on point of sale advertising, similar to what was done with alcohol, in order that we try to protect young people in this regard. I also raised in this House a number of months ago the issue of HHC, a semi-synthetic cannabinoid, being sold in vape shops in vapes. I am glad the Government moved and prohibited this. It just shows the devastating impact that is happening to our young people. I know many young people across Mayo who bought HHC in a vape shop and suffered significantly as a result of this. We are behind the curve on this. We are behind other countries. It is time that we move to protect our young people. I would like to see a ban on the beautiful colours, the bubblegum and the smells. That marketing strategy must be counteracted. I am sure there are many people who smoke and are using vapes as a step down away from that. That is potentially a good thing and it can be positive. We must protect our young people and bring in legislation to prevent the sale and passing it out like sweets. More research also needs to go into the chemicals and the substances in vapes. It is a new technology. There is not enough research on the long-term health implications. I ask the Minister of State to look into this and work with the HSE to ensure that we have the full information in relation to the chemicals in vape products.

I welcome the introduction of this Bill. I concur with colleagues. The willingness to accept amendments on Committee Stage will be most important. If that can be enabled, it would be a move in a strong and positive direction. This is something that parents, children, teenagers, teachers, Tidy Towns volunteers and public health professionals are strongly in favour of. I commend the Minister of State on the work that has been done to date. The devil will be in the detail. Nicotine, no matter what way it is dressed up, whether it is in a pouch, in a single-use or a continuous-product, is addictive. It is a gateway drug. The most concerning aspect of the contents of these products is the additional items, namely, propylene glycol, formaldehyde, benzine, heavy metals such as lead, nickel and cadmium, and the ultrafine particles. This is where the devil is in the detail and where the respiratory and the carcinogenic effects are most prevalent and dangerous. I disagree completely with the points that have been made in relation to substitution and vaping being a substitute for smoking. We have nicotine replacement therapy minus these other chemicals. That is where the emphasis needs to be placed. In terms of supporting people stepping down and stepping away from these products, there will have to be a concurrent support for people to step over and to step up to the use of nicotine replacement therapy through the community pharmacy network. I will speak particularly about Meath Comhairle na nÓg, the young people's version of Meath County Council. It carried out a poster campaign and has had various surveys and a video campaign on the harm of drugs. It also included vaping in that. Young people are crying out for support. I flag the necessity for inspection of the youth support services in conjunction with nicotine replacement services that are going to be required to make sure that they are available at the same time or shortly after the banning of the product because young people are addicted to nicotine and withdrawal effects will have to be dealt with. There is a broader issue in the regard around mental health, advertising and the safeguards, which will all be best saved for in-depth discussion on Committee Stage. Given the season and the prevalence of respiratory illnesses be they RSV or influenza-----

Could the Deputy move the adjournment of the debate?

I so move.