Mr. Chris Macey:

The conclusion of an Economic and Social Research Institute report from 2017 entitled, Do youth access control policies stop young people smoking?, was that there continues to be a considerable debate about the effectiveness of that, but the evidence is strongly in support of continued use of minimum legal age regulations as a measure to reduce smoking prevalence among young people.

On the evidence point, the evidence is very strong. We think the Department of Health will support this measure. We hope it will. We had an international transatlantic conference on it yesterday. The level of evidence is very strong.

In terms of the various elements we both agree on and call for regarding e-cigarettes, that will stop nicotine addiction and it will have a gateway effect but we have to do more to tackle youth smoking. With respect to the policy that Ireland would be tobacco free by 2025, there was a time when we thought that by 2025 we would get the youth smoking rate down to 5%. It is not 14% now and that will not happen. Therefore, we must do more. This is a very sensible and evidence-based method of doing it.

There are very important measures in the Bill, with which we are dealing, that need to be enacted quickly. There has been quite a long delay, understandably in light of Covid, and we cannot wait any longer. That must be done separately. A separate Bill or amending legislation could be introduced quite quickly. There needs to be consultations with sellers. Education and enforcement must be thought through to make sure it is as effective as it needs to be. We would separate those out but we think the other three points around e-cigarettes should be included in the current legislation.