Mr. Declan Connolly:

I do not particularly like giving anecdotal data but when the pandemic began and all non-essential businesses were closed, high-street vape shops also had to close. We do not have hard and fast figures but we know that a good percentage of people who were vaping could not get their vape products from their normal vape shop. They may not have liked what was available in the high-street store, supermarket or petrol station. Anecdotally, we all know many people who started smoking again when the pandemic started. As an association, we requested to be included as an essential business. That did not happen. It did happen in other countries, which is interesting to see. Vape shops were allowed to remain open and were considered essential businesses in other countries because those countries think that vaping has a significant role to play in keeping people away from smoking.