Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 1 March 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
General Scheme of the Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill: Discussion (Resumed)
Mr. John Dunne:
Absolutely. It should be part of the eventual Bill that there be a process to electronically check the age of the purchaser. We referred to the UK. Such a process is in place there. Online retailers have to be able to verify, either electronically or manually, that the person is over the age of 18. After watching the meeting last week, I spoke to a company that is actually in a position to offer that service in Ireland. A challenge it identified is that there are certain ways it checks the age electronically in the UK that may not be available in Ireland. It is confident, however, that it could have that service up and running in Ireland within a week. I am happy to share its information with the committee if it would like to contact it.
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