Mr. John Dunne:

We must be very careful with that. We do not want to make smokers think vaping is just as bad for them as smoking. By introducing plain packaging and overly restricting vaping products, all we are doing is reinforcing a negative message about vaping to the effect that vaping is just as bad as smoking and, therefore, one might as well just keep smoking. We must encourage smokers to move away from doing something which we know potentially could kill them. They are ingesting 4,500 chemicals a year. Smoking kills 6,000 people in Ireland every year. We are saying there are better alternatives, whether it be quitting by the cold turkey method, using nicotine replacement therapy, NRT, products, or using vaping products, and then we should let the consumer make that choice. We are not saying everybody should vape but it is another tool in the public health war chest for people to use.