Professor Des Cox:

The Chairman asked whether what is happening with tobacco smoking in Ireland at the moment is a blip. As Dr. McAvoy mentioned earlier, much of the evidence we have based on surveys from that period is coloured because of the different pressures of actually getting the information in the first place and the different state of mind of people. We need to look at the bigger picture of the overall trend. It seems that tobacco control in Ireland has stalled somewhat. As a group of doctors, our concern is that whatever about what happened during the Covid pandemic, we are supposed to be aiming for a tobacco-free Ireland of 5%; we are currently at 18%. We are supposed to be tobacco-free by 2025. We are way off that figure.

To get the trend in the right direction, we strongly believe that tobacco control needs to be prioritised through legislative measures. This is the first time in many years that legislation relating to tobacco control has come up. We strongly support the additional recommendations being made today. It is all about the bigger picture of trying to protect people from the harms of tobacco smoking. That needs to be the focus of any legislative measures. This particular legislation is a child protection issue, regarding the ban of nicotine inhaled products under the age of 18 and protecting children from the dangers of both tobacco and nicotine inhaled products.