Ms Joanne O'Connell:

It 100% is a serious issue. On the gateway in, I agree with most of the Deputy's points. A big issue with the youth who are getting e-cigarettes is they are not getting them from the majority of bricks-and- mortar shops that just deal in e-cigarettes. They are getting them from electronics shops or convenience stores. A good way to definitely reduce the number of youths is to really focus the licensing on where e-cigarettes are being sold. If they are being sold by a bricks-and-mortar independent retailer, there is a much better barrier in place to stop youths ever even seeing them. Speaking personally, we do not let under-18s come in the door at all. As soon as they walk in the door we ask for identification. If they do not have it they get asked to leave, so they are not browsing the products and seeing what is there. I agree that some packaging is probably overly colourful. I would not say it is targeted towards kids because adults are attracted to these things too. Adults are attracted to colours and flavourings. We find many of our customers will start on a tobacco flavour but once they start vaping, they really want to be away from the flavour of tobacco completely. They still want the familiar hand to mouth but they do not want to be reminded of smoking.