Mr. John Dunne:

Advertising has to be done in a responsible way. One of the one of the issues is that the vast majority of people who use vaping products, not only here in the State, but around the world, are between the ages of 30 and 55. Unfortunately, in the EU, under the tobacco products directive, advertising is extremely restricted in respect of the messaging we can use. I believe that is confusing for smokers.

As I mentioned in my opening statement, there is an opportunity for the Government to look at something similar to what the New Zealand Government has done. It has come out with specific, scientific-based switching messages. If all of the vaping industry in Ireland was allowed to use only that specific messaging, that would go a long way towards encouraging smokers to make that choice. It would give them the confidence to know that vaping is a better thing to do than smoking. When it comes down to it, we are all looking for the same thing. We are all looking to encourage smokers to either quit, which is optimal, or to do something that is less harmful.

When we look closely at those smoking rates, we find that the majority of the increase was between the ages of 25 and 34, at 21%. Regular use was the highest amongst 35- to 49-year-olds, at 6.7%. It is important that we restrict products to young people. We are currently not doing that.