Mr. Mark Murphy:

The EU's tobacco directive is being updated. It is being reviewed. The EU has recognised a problem online because although e-cigarette advertising is not allowed online, the likes of the big e-cigarette companies are allowed to have social media accounts. They pay their marketers millions to circumvent the rules through hash tags and social media influencers. British American Tobacco was caught in Italy hiring social media influencers through its e-cigarette company. Those influencers have large numbers of followers online, most of whom are young people. It is something that needs to be addressed urgently because that is the way they are getting in. It is hard to monitor because much of the analytics, including how many views an advertisement gets, is controlled by the likes of Instagram and Facebook. It is the major way those tobacco companies are getting into young people's viewing points. Young people see this activity online. The EU is looking at the matter. It will take a few years but it is something that needs to be addressed.

Ireland can definitely take the lead and start banning all forms of advertising, including billboards and point-of-sale marketing. It can be a leader at EU level and say this needs to stop. There is no reason why e-cigarette companies need to have a Facebook or Instagram account. There is no reason why they need to be promoted. Many of them promote themselves as a tech company. They promote the image of their product as belonging beside an iPhone, as if it is a cool tech product that plugs into a USB. There is no reason why they should be allowed any kind of advertisement. If an e-cigarette company tries to portray itself as a cessation company, it should be controlled in that way and not allowed all this glamorous online marketing, point-of-sale marketing or billboard advertising.