Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Obviously some of the conversations are repeated from previous sessions. There has been a lot of discussion around our rates of smoking and the levelling of the decline in smoking, which would have happened after the smoking ban. The position of the industry representatives in the previous session was that Covid meant that vaping was less accessible. Someone could not walk into a shop and get vaping products and, therefore, one of the reasons smoking had started to either stop declining or increase was because there was not enough access to vaping. Some of the research that was being quoted to us dates from 2015 onwards, which does not align with the Covid period. I put it to Dr. McAvoy that this is what is being told to Members of the Oireachtas - that there is an interaction between Covid and access to vaping and those numbers declining. The position of the industry representatives is that we need more vaping, not less, to reduce the numbers of people smoking. What is Dr. McAvoy's reaction to that position?